Like everything involved in hospitality design, public area flooring
is expected to visually communicate and embody a brand while also
creating aesthetic interiors. Add to this considerations such as uniqueness, eco-consciousness,
cost-effectiveness and low hassle, as well as the need to bring in a
hint of local flavour, suddenly the business of public-area flooring
commands a good deal of attention to detail. Compared to in-room flooring, those in public areas need to be sturdier
to withstand higher footfalls and, in some cases, weather conditions. So
the thickness — or grammage, as some manufacturers call it — of the
carpets need to be higher and tiles must be heavy-duty.
Carpets
The carpet in Hilton The Hague, in Holland, was designed by Angelika Kok of Barzileye Concept & Design. Her brief was to bring local personality to the hotel, and she combined two design solutions. The first was inspired by aerial footage from the city and its rural surroundings: the design team at Desso, a Netherlands-based international specialist in carpets for the hospitality sector, translated these images into a carpet design for corridors and meeting rooms.
For her second component, Kok pixilated a small portion of the Panorama
Mesdag, one of the most iconic paintings from the Netherlands, which was
again translated into Axminster carpet by Desso for the hotel’s Mesdag
Ballroom.
Incorporating a city into a hotel is a relatively newer trend and carpets are the first canvas for this. Desso’s recent projects for boutique hotel brand citizenM in Amsterdam and Scotland include working with images of each city centre for corridor carpets.
The Le Meridien in Chiang Mai, Thailand, used a map of the historic city as the key design inspiration for their carpets. “We understand the importance of branding in the hospitality sector, and have a long experience of working with hotel operators and design teams to creatively bring brands to life,” said Roland Jonkhoff, MD of Desso’s hospitality, marine and aviation division.
Architects and designers share their creative briefs with carpet manufacturers who then translate these ideas into the carpet. This isn’t always a cake-walk as public-area floors involve many more complicated components than beds and couches, as is the case in guest rooms.
Patodia Contract is credited with creating the public-area flooring at the Aman New Delhi and the ITC Gardenia in Bangalore, among numerous others, and is currently working on the Shangri-La Mumbai and the JW Marriott New Delhi Airport. The company developed a black metallic carpet using Lurex, which is metal yarn made for designers, to render the metallic look for the Blue Bar at the Taj Palace, New Delhi.
Among their recent projects is hand-woven carpeting for the 15,000 sq-ft Durbar Hall at the Taj Palace, New Delhi. Director Pranay Patodia says: “We finished the carpet as a single piece. At our workshop, a special area of over 15,000 sq-ft was created for the latexing and finishing it.”
Incorporating a city into a hotel is a relatively newer trend and carpets are the first canvas for this. Desso’s recent projects for boutique hotel brand citizenM in Amsterdam and Scotland include working with images of each city centre for corridor carpets.
The Le Meridien in Chiang Mai, Thailand, used a map of the historic city as the key design inspiration for their carpets. “We understand the importance of branding in the hospitality sector, and have a long experience of working with hotel operators and design teams to creatively bring brands to life,” said Roland Jonkhoff, MD of Desso’s hospitality, marine and aviation division.
Architects and designers share their creative briefs with carpet manufacturers who then translate these ideas into the carpet. This isn’t always a cake-walk as public-area floors involve many more complicated components than beds and couches, as is the case in guest rooms.
Patodia Contract is credited with creating the public-area flooring at the Aman New Delhi and the ITC Gardenia in Bangalore, among numerous others, and is currently working on the Shangri-La Mumbai and the JW Marriott New Delhi Airport. The company developed a black metallic carpet using Lurex, which is metal yarn made for designers, to render the metallic look for the Blue Bar at the Taj Palace, New Delhi.
Among their recent projects is hand-woven carpeting for the 15,000 sq-ft Durbar Hall at the Taj Palace, New Delhi. Director Pranay Patodia says: “We finished the carpet as a single piece. At our workshop, a special area of over 15,000 sq-ft was created for the latexing and finishing it.”
Tiles
It is only a matter of time before customisation also extends to tile-manufacturers who are keen to create products specifically for
the industry. Sudhir Malesha, CEO of RAK Ceramics, says: “Hotels are opting for tiles that look like they have been made from natural materials such as marble or stone. Digital methods allow us to print images on tiles. Anything that can be captured in a photograph can be printed on the tile.”
A superlative in process is seen at the recently opened Grand Hyatt Goa. “Our hotel has a palace design, so this flooring was needed to reflect that. The technology used involved small, handmade marble biscuits. The marble and concrete mixture had to be polished nine times for the final finish. It is very labour intensive but our contractor, GA Design from Mumbai, has done a fantastic job and the finish is perfect,” says Stefan Radstorm, the property’s general manager.
The sheer number of materials used in various parts of the hotel, related to each area’s traffic and requirements is impressive. At the Marriott Pune City Centre, at least five different flooring materials have been used across public areas. “There is a mix of sandstone and marble on the porch, lobby and coffee shop areas, wooden flooring at the restaurants and banquet pre-function areas, unfinished granite at the swimming pool and some of the porch areas, and sleeper wood at one of the outside areas near Banyan Tree,” says Heena Srivastava, director of rooms at Marriott Pune City Centre.
It is only a matter of time before customisation also extends to tile-manufacturers who are keen to create products specifically for
the industry. Sudhir Malesha, CEO of RAK Ceramics, says: “Hotels are opting for tiles that look like they have been made from natural materials such as marble or stone. Digital methods allow us to print images on tiles. Anything that can be captured in a photograph can be printed on the tile.”
A superlative in process is seen at the recently opened Grand Hyatt Goa. “Our hotel has a palace design, so this flooring was needed to reflect that. The technology used involved small, handmade marble biscuits. The marble and concrete mixture had to be polished nine times for the final finish. It is very labour intensive but our contractor, GA Design from Mumbai, has done a fantastic job and the finish is perfect,” says Stefan Radstorm, the property’s general manager.
The sheer number of materials used in various parts of the hotel, related to each area’s traffic and requirements is impressive. At the Marriott Pune City Centre, at least five different flooring materials have been used across public areas. “There is a mix of sandstone and marble on the porch, lobby and coffee shop areas, wooden flooring at the restaurants and banquet pre-function areas, unfinished granite at the swimming pool and some of the porch areas, and sleeper wood at one of the outside areas near Banyan Tree,” says Heena Srivastava, director of rooms at Marriott Pune City Centre.
Who’s the boss?
This is perhaps the one area in which a third party’s word tends to trump that of the hotel owner. Architects tend to call the shots, basing their selection on several parameters. Srivastava confirms this, saying that in Marriott’s case, it was the interior designer who would select materials for public areas that would suit the decor of the area.
Patodia says: “While a manufacturer may meet an owner’s demands, which are usually quality and maintenance-focused, designers and architects want to see who can provide maximum customisation, quality translation of their idea into a carpet and whether they will provide efficient developmental support.”
Another carpet manufacturer, Venjara Carpets, has found that the decision rests with architects and the operating brand. The company’s Manoj Jagwani says: “Most demands and instructions are about adhering to brand design, colours and trademarks.” Venjara has experienced work on two Sun-n-Sand properties and several three-star hotels.
This is perhaps the one area in which a third party’s word tends to trump that of the hotel owner. Architects tend to call the shots, basing their selection on several parameters. Srivastava confirms this, saying that in Marriott’s case, it was the interior designer who would select materials for public areas that would suit the decor of the area.
Patodia says: “While a manufacturer may meet an owner’s demands, which are usually quality and maintenance-focused, designers and architects want to see who can provide maximum customisation, quality translation of their idea into a carpet and whether they will provide efficient developmental support.”
Another carpet manufacturer, Venjara Carpets, has found that the decision rests with architects and the operating brand. The company’s Manoj Jagwani says: “Most demands and instructions are about adhering to brand design, colours and trademarks.” Venjara has experienced work on two Sun-n-Sand properties and several three-star hotels.
Green times
Patodia says that green is increasingly popular. “The big demand is definitely green certification, which is given by the carpet CRI in the US. Handmade carpets don’t come into their ambit but are in any case eco-friendly as they use cotton and wool, which are bio-degradable.”
Handmade is said to be the most popular among Indian hotels in smaller public areas, such as receptions and lobbies, due to texture and finishing limitations with machine made carpets. Patodia says: “Hand-made carpets are usually of Thai, Chinese or Indian origin and of the three, Indian manufactured, hand-made carpets offer the best price.”
However, machine-made carpets have a different set of benefits. “We would opt for machine-made. They are economical and long lasting,” says Srivastava.
Jagwani says other demands are for fire resistant flooring materials that are easily vacuum cleanable.
A downside with handmade carpets is that they take longer to create. “We can deliver a hand-made carpet ex-mill within a minimum of eight weeks if it is not too complicated but it can take 16 weeks for very complicated, intricate designs,” says Patodia. He has even seen some projects that demand a year’s lead time. Desso’s carpet at the The Renaissance Vinoy Hotel in Florida took 500 hours to design.
Faux natural
There is also the growing trend of giving a supremely natural feeling to floors and walls that that is becoming increasingly popular among hotels. This look can achieve the effect of bringing the outdoors in.
The Marriott Pune City Centre has implemented this. “The extensive use of the wooden surfaces is unusual,” says Srivastava, speaking of what has been done differently at her property.
In order to better cater to hotel the prime industry needs of time and scale, tile manufacturers are working on enabling larger-sized tiles with natural prints.
“Computer prints tend to be on smaller tiles but now we have already graduated to tiles of 75x75 cm and we’re all in the process of getting into 1x1 metre so then we’ll be able to serve hotels even better,” Malesha adds.
Tiles work well for hotels that want to save time as against natural materials. “When it comes to marble and stone, it may take time to source perfect matches. Very rare types of marble may need to be imported again resulting in time lapse. Tiles do away with all these hassles,” Malesha says.
Laminate wooden flooring, although less exotic looking than its natural hardwood counterpart, is better for public areas that are alfresco because natural hardwood tends to expand. Similarly, engineered wood is manufactured by binding wood particles together with adhesives, and are easier to assemble as well as maintain.
Brands such as Nitco target hotels looking at tiles for their public area flooring. Customisation to brand design and colours is an obvious promise: they are keen to make known that mosaics are possible with pre-designed formats or brand centric ones.
There is also the growing trend of giving a supremely natural feeling to floors and walls that that is becoming increasingly popular among hotels. This look can achieve the effect of bringing the outdoors in.
The Marriott Pune City Centre has implemented this. “The extensive use of the wooden surfaces is unusual,” says Srivastava, speaking of what has been done differently at her property.
In order to better cater to hotel the prime industry needs of time and scale, tile manufacturers are working on enabling larger-sized tiles with natural prints.
“Computer prints tend to be on smaller tiles but now we have already graduated to tiles of 75x75 cm and we’re all in the process of getting into 1x1 metre so then we’ll be able to serve hotels even better,” Malesha adds.
Tiles work well for hotels that want to save time as against natural materials. “When it comes to marble and stone, it may take time to source perfect matches. Very rare types of marble may need to be imported again resulting in time lapse. Tiles do away with all these hassles,” Malesha says.
Laminate wooden flooring, although less exotic looking than its natural hardwood counterpart, is better for public areas that are alfresco because natural hardwood tends to expand. Similarly, engineered wood is manufactured by binding wood particles together with adhesives, and are easier to assemble as well as maintain.
Brands such as Nitco target hotels looking at tiles for their public area flooring. Customisation to brand design and colours is an obvious promise: they are keen to make known that mosaics are possible with pre-designed formats or brand centric ones.
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