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The Natural History Museum and leading hospitality interior design firm HBA London have announced a partnership to deliver a concept guestroom inspired by the natural world. This extraordinary one-off design project will be part of Sleep Set, a feature taking place at Europe’s leading hospitality design event, Sleep + Eat, on the 20th and 21st of November at London’s Olympia. The aim of Sleep Set is to deliver concept guestrooms designed to provoke, amuse and inspire. The challenge for each designer taking part in the Sleep Set event is to partner with a brand – but, in the tradition of Sleep + Eat, these brands are not typical names when it comes to the world of hotels or hospitality. As well as HBA London, which is working with the Natural History Museum, architectural practice Denton Corker Marshall will tackle West Ham Football Club, architect and designer Yasmine Mahmoudieh is to pair with Penguin Modern Classics and international luxury design firm AB Concept will collaborate with Maison Pierre Hermé Paris. Each Sleep Set designer has been tasked with creating a guestroom concept based on its partner brand’s aesthetic and values. Innovative and engaging, the sets will facilitate new and imaginative ways for visitors to interact with four selected, and very different, brands. The design of the Natural History Museum concept guestroom, like those of the other three concept guestrooms on show at Sleep + Eat, is to remain under wraps until the show opens on the 20th of November. However, HBA London has given a hint of what visitors can expect, explaining that, with the aim of awakening the curious explorer in us all, HBA London will be inviting Sleep + Eat’s visitors to discover the unexpected in the most immediate of surroundings. Stimulated by the beauty of the natural world and the importance of our connection with it through design, the set will, says HBA London, encourage the uncovering of treasures, the examination of exciting specimens and the drive to learn. Supporting this concept, the poster promoting the partnership intriguingly combines a photo of Charles Darwin and a butterfly with the words “Past. Hope. Future. A Journey of Discovery”. HBA London is the highly acclaimed UK studio of global hospitality design leader, Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), which specialises in hotel, resort, spa and residential projects around the globe. Sleep + Eat is Europe’s leading event dedicated to excellence in hospitality design and development. Over two days the show brings hospitality leaders together with Europe’s foremost designers, consultants, architects and emerging talent in the international hotels, restaurants and bars sector. It comprises a major exhibition, a design and development conference, and Sleep Set and Eat Set concept spaces, among other experiential features. Maxine Lister, Head of Licensing, Natural History Museum, says: “HBA has designed a Natural History Museum-inspired space that is so much more than just a guestroom. It is, as HBA puts it, “a room for today’s explorers, a space for wandering minds and new insights”. For us too this is not just a beautiful piece of interior design but a wonderful opportunity to underline the versatility and adaptability of the Natural History Museum brand and to show attendees just how inspirational in so many unexpected ways the natural world can be.” |