Market Trends

🏬 Etro Home Interiors reveals its 2024 collection, merging 60s and 70s rediscovery with modern style. Furniture boasts clean lines, lacquered finishes, and up to nine color options. The Rotunda collection features sideboards and other units, complemented by the Arnica top. The Around mirror, with glossy lacquered wood and LED lighting, adds vintage elegance. Hand-tufted mohair Cherry, Cream, and Yellow Hues rugs introduce geometric motifs. The Dice collection's totemic lampshades enhance interiors with sophisticated lighting.

🎄 Pedrali collections offer design gifts for Christmas, with items like the flexible Diego side table by Jorge Pensi Design Studio, featuring an aluminum die-cast base, a trapezoidal HPL tabletop, and adaptable positioning. For plant enthusiasts, Hevea, designed by Victoria Azadinho Bocconi, is a versatile pot-holder that allows vertical arrangements. Giravolta lamps by Basaglia Rota Nodari provide 360-degree rotation, a handle, and touch control with three light intensities, enhancing festive atmospheres with their wireless design.

🏆 The Gold Service Scholarship 2025 semi-finals featured high-caliber candidates from the hospitality industry, including renowned venues like Trinity and Core by Clare Smyth. The quarter finals occurred in October at London's Langham and Hotel Café Royal, where 50 semi-finalists were chosen for the next round on November 29, 2024, at Rosewood London. The final takes place on January 13, 2025, at Corinthia London, with the award ceremony on February 10 at Claridge’s. The scholarship began in 2012.

🍕 In LA's Highland Park, Jared Frank Studio designed "Wildcrust," a single-storey pizza parlour inspired by Milan's modernist design. The studio, while working with Chef Miles Okabayashi, moved away from Northeast US aesthetics, embracing contrasting colors, materials, and lighting fixtures reminiscent of Italian design greats. The space features pistachio green cabinets, claret-coloured leather banquettes, and decorative lighting, including sconces shaped like inverted stepped pyramids. Wildcrust marks Frank's first hospitality project since Tenants of the Trees nightclub.

🎨 Lily Ackerman, founder and director of Ackerman Design Studios, discussed the importance of art in hospitality for emotional connections and storytelling. The conversation highlights recent projects, collaborations with iconic and emerging artists, and practical insights on using art to enhance hospitality experiences. Lily's father, with his background in hospitality, influenced her approach, emphasizing the emotional impact of spaces. A pivotal moment in her career was the founding of Ackerman Studios, spurred by her father's illness and passing. Ackerman Studios curates art for hospitality, balancing budget, environment, and artistic integrity, aiming to make art accessible and engaging for guests and staff. Hospitality providers benefit from showcasing both renowned and emerging artists, creating a win-win situation by supporting artists' careers and enriching the guest experience. 🖼️

🏠 Policronica redesigned the 850-square-metre Hotel Elysée Montmartre in Paris, using eucalyptus wood for nearly all furnishings, sourced locally and crafted in their Lisbon workshop. Architect Julien Labrousse highlights the project's low carbon footprint due to in-house production and lack of repetitive shipping. The 16-room hotel's warm, neutral design features plant fibres, brass, and natural fabrics, aiming to evoke simplicity and functionality with influences from Nordic and Japanese architecture. Hotel Elysée Montmartre is set to open in January 2025, with plans to add ten more rooms within a year, and it is shortlisted for a Dezeen Award 2024.

🏕 andBeyond Ngala Tented Camp, after a 6-month refurbishment, reopened in October 2024 on the Timbavati River, South Africa. The redesign features spacious guest tents with secluded outdoor spaces, indoor and outdoor showers, and al fresco bathtubs. New guest areas, expanded decks, a larger swimming pool, and a gym complement the camp's elegant mix of traditional and contemporary design. The camp welcomes children over twelve, offering a private experience distinct from Ngala Safari Lodge.

💸 Inflationary pressures persist with 9 out of 10 foodservice categories experiencing month-on-month price increases. CEO of Prestige Purchasing, Shaun Allen, emphasizes the need for proactive and adaptable procurement strategies due to market volatility. Vegetables, particularly potatoes, remain highly inflated, while the largest month-on-month increase is in the oils and fats category, influenced by rising butter prices. The sugar, jam, syrups, chocolate, and vegetable categories show the highest year-on-year inflation, with ongoing pressure on revenue and margins expected through 2024 and into the next year, according to Reuben Pullan, senior insight consultant at CGA by NIQ.

🛠 Philippe Starck and Duravit celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Starck barrel, introducing an update with glossy and matt ceramics, new lacquers, and c-bonded technology. The design maintains its minimal essence, aiming for timelessness and eschewing trends. Stark emphasizes durability, sustainability, and the notion of a product being an essential part of human life that should extend beyond temporary fashions. His approach to sustainability is rooted in his experiences since age 17, questioning necessity, promoting longevity, and prioritizing intelligent, sustainable design for generational use.