Four teams have been announced for this year’s Sleep Set – the competition within Sleep where different design teams present their take on the hotels of tomorrow in a series of visionary room sets. Some of the industry’s most celebrated designers are participating along with newer names that are making their mark on the sector: Nigel Coates Studio, Dreimeta, NoChintz and SKM Design are all taking up the creative challenge.The brief for 2014 is to create a guestroom blueprint for a new hotel brand which takes as its core value “simplexity” – the emerging theory of a relationship between simplicity and complexity that asks: why have simple things become so complex? The Sleep Set will explore how hotel interior designers can reverse this trend and create more harmonious and intuitive experiences for guests. The teams have each come up with a very distinct and imaginative response to the brief.
Nigel Coates is one of Britain’s consistently original thinkers in architecture, interiors and product design. He has continued to explore the communicative and experiential potential of architecture as a language drawn from the commonplace. With the premise that a successful hotel room should be both a home from home and “a step up from the banal reality of travel”, Nigel Coates Studio has taken one of its Cubist designs, the ‘Feral’ chair, as the generator of its Sleep Set design concept. The chair’s angular form is transferred into the room itself creating a dynamic space that will encourage guests to discover their own way of inhabiting it. The studio has partnered with contractor Ligna Group and sponsor Alchemy Design Award to realise the room set.
Founded in 2003 by Armin Fischer, German design studio Dreimeta is best known for its award-winning work for the pioneering ‘25hrs’ and ‘Superbude’ brands which have revolutionised urban hostel and hotel stays. The studio’s Sleep Set proposition, ‘Micasa’, is a holistic hotel concept aimed at experienced travellers in search of inspiring, pure spaces; it expresses a ‘new simplicity’ meaning the balance between a sustainable lifestyle, modern and traditional values and economic efficiency. The room’s minimalistic design will emphasise a peaceful and stress-free environment, allowing plenty of freedom for the guest.
Manchester-based creative studio NoChintz specialises in interior design and branding, bringing head-turning design to spaces, places and brands. Recent work includes the characterful ‘Inn at John O’Groats’ in Scotland. Working closely with collaborative partner Johnson Tiles (currently making 900,000 ceramic poppies which form the First World War tribute at the Tower of London), NoChintz’s concept for Sleep Set will showcase a trendfocused and creative mythology to deliver a room that is distinctive and original in its approach to hospitality yet simple and luxurious for the user.
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