Colours that Care
Colours that Care
Creating an ambience, providing orientation, representing identity – and all this at first glance. Meanwhile, a hotel lobby is far from being only a purely functional reception area. Expectations of the aimed at target group have increased; today, the lobby serves as reception and information pool, as communication zone, meeting area and workspace. Calm and lively zones alternate due to places like café, bar, restaurant as well as various events.
No doubt, today’s lobby is highly multifunctional and spatially flexible. Open floor plans are the best precondition – this way the lobby can permanently adapt to changing requirements.
A special challenge thereby is to attune the interior design of the lobby to target groups, style worlds and functions. Colours, materials, light, and surfaces provide an enormous repertoire for attractive, unmistakable and simultaneously extravagant spatial effects. Indeed, the second impression matters, too.
Once the “key point” of the hotel, the lobby is no longer mandatory to check in – thanks to the internet. Consequently, the reception turns into the central point of contact for all matters. The employees slip into the role of concierges, individually looking after the guests, lending their support for all enquiries and, of course, they know the preferences of their regular guests.
The service develops away from standards and towards services characterised by a personal touch. The design of the reception takes up this development accordingly and creates an open, distinct environment.
The different service areas of a hotel are highly frequented by guests and staff. For wall surfaces, in particular, this means a high exposure to wear and tear. Therefore, Caparol has developed a series of wall paints which are geared to these special requirements: they are insensitive, robust, easy-to-clean, and have good visual qualities. These properties considerably extend renovation intervals.
Interior coating for highly frequented areas – bright shades
Interior coating for highly frequented areas – intense shades
Work and leisure increasingly intermingle, work is no longer done in the classic way at one’s personal desk and at fixed times but, thanks to modern IT, at almost any place – also in the hotel. Uncomplicated solutions such as meeting rooms or office units with quiet areas for retreat are in demand. Equally popular are open-plan interior landscapes where work is done in the anonymous company of others.
In these areas, in particular, guests expect unconventional furniture and spatial concepts, for example lounge elements, high tables, podiums or inviting seat cushions.
Especially in open-plan work areas room acoustics play a central role. Conversations, concentration and discretion require short reverberation times and low sound reflection. Caparol provides acoustic elements, which can also be retrofitted on walls and ceilings. CapaCoustic Picture allows the aesthetically appealing design of absorber systems according to individual demands.
Acoustic elements with high sound absorption capacity
Individually printable acoustic panels to improve room acoustics
Tomorrow’s flexible lobby concept provides space for varying requirements: standards like a breakfast buffet and a bar are complemented with events such as readings in the evening, company parties or private celebrations. The traditional ancillary room has served its time, events are again celebrated in public.
Co-operations with cafés, restaurants or other gastronomic-cultural offerings in the surrounding area comply with the guests’ wish for a wide culinary variety, but simultaneously demand a more flexible interior design.
The rapid change of preferences and expectations leads to an increasingly versatile use of the lobby. As a consequence, redesign cycles are becoming shorter, new sensual impulses have to be provided - also by means of colours, surfaces, materials.
The quick shifts between different event formats require extremely hard-wearing materials. This includes the floor covering, for which DISBON, one of Caparol’s sister companies, provides suitable flooring solutions: easy to clean, able to take a lot and providing attractive design possibilities. Additionally, they reduce impact sound.
Finishing sealant for Disboxid ArteFloor System
Floor covering with impact sound-absorbing properties
Another service of the lobby for hotel guests is the retail strategy: concept-conforming, trendy and, above all, selected products only insiders are aware of are offered in the hotel shop. This adventure factor comprises regional producers, insiders’ brands or exclusive manufacturers. Thus the lobby turns into a trend intermediary for the more open-minded guest.
Retail and lobby merge into a new unity – also because the trend-oriented retail design provides latest design impulses for the hotel. The spatial experiential value needs to be attuned accordingly. Here, a crucial factor is a creative surface design.
Surfaces, in particular, play a key role for retail concepts, with aspects like innovation, individuality and emotionality are playing an important role. Caparol provides surfaces with appealing aesthetics, which are easily implemented on site. The spectrum ranges from sublimely shining gold to surfaces with the charm of a natural patina.
Rusty surfaces meanwhile represent their own distinct aesthetic. Once derided as a corrosion product, rust now lends walls a “dilapidated” elegance.
Gold has many facets: regardless whether blackened gold with vintage look or vibrant red gold, whether brightly polished or discreetly shimmering – gold allows the creation of effective surfaces.
