Looking back at EquipHotel 2018

EquipHotel closed its doors on Thursday, so we thought we would look back at the show in pictures, sharing our favourites along with the hotel room designs dreamed up by the brands. It is a good way to find inspiration. Be warned, though: some of the installations are best avoided if the occupants' wellbeing is at stake. This is a panorama of the best, but also of the worst… Let's take a tour.

The stands that caught our eye

Before we present the full set of images at the bottom of the page, let's pause on a few stands.

Our favourite: Alki

As you will have noticed, Actuarchi regularly features projects by Scandinavian architects such as BIG, MVRDV, Mecanoo and CF Møller. Timber has a notable presence in their work, as does a generosity of space, particularly in the in-between areas. Our favourite was the furniture brand Alki, for the quality of its timber furniture and its rounded forms, which chime with the aspirations of a younger generation that likes sensual, high-quality products made from environmentally friendly materials, in this case wood.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

Our enthusiasm only grew when we looked into the company. Based in the French Basque Country, it is in fact a cooperative that aims to make chairs built to last, hence its use of oak (Alki means chair in Basque). It is a far cry from those manufacturers that change hands regularly and move from one investment fund to the next. The brand's success has not remained confined to the Basque Country, however, and it now exports to many countries. Alki furnishes the headquarters of Hermès, Levi Strauss and Quiksilver, among others.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

The EquipHotel market

Our second favourite is not a materials exhibitor but the Gourmet Distribution installation. For those who do not know the company, it is the distributor that supplies restaurants. Its space took up almost a third of the hall devoted to catering, which says a lot about the company's weight in this market.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

Next to it, Saint-Gobain's stand at Batimat looks ridiculous. As large as a supermarket, it reproduced the various spaces found in such retail outlets, using a simple and effective treatment of raw timber. It is a shame that visitors were jostling for free nibbles, which made the installation hard to appreciate.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

A little gallery of inspiration for your hotel rooms

No, the editorial team does not like all the rooms shown below. But we like to offer a panorama of references that goes beyond our own tastes, so that everyone can find something to their liking.

The end of the rectangular bed

We like to break away from orthogonality when designing a façade, whether for educational or cultural projects or even for high-rise towers. So why not do the same with beds? At the show we spotted several manufacturers offering beds with curved shapes. Rest assured, it is easy to separate the bed frame from the mattress and so overcome the barrier of the sheets!

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

The bathroom as an extension of the bedroom

In many installations, the partition separating the bedroom from the bathroom has been knocked down. Just as, since the 2000s, many homes have seen the wall between kitchen and living room come down, the same fate looms for the wall between bathroom and bedroom. This is largely because a couple generally has its own bathing area, an intimate space that can extend erotic possibilities.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

Drugeot, the Papaoutai mood of Stromae

Both simple and colourful, the Drugeot furniture range reminded us of Stromae's Papaoutai video. Psychological studies have shown that the older a person is, the more they appreciate pale colours. A sign of wisdom? The world proposed by Drugeot rides this shade of colour, which has become fashionable again. Is it the Papiboum effect? Hard to say, but this trend has spread very quickly online, with pale start-up logos such as MonDocteur, and the various Google services that have been given a facelift along these lines in recent years. Finally, the company with the apple logo has done the same for its stores.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

Minimalism: Ceramica Bardelli

As we saw in a previous article, minimalism remains a safe bet. At a time when Samsung has developed smartphone technology with no notch, and even a screen as flexible as a bracelet, the dream of having a pocket-sized screen that is nothing but glass is becoming ever more attainable. This weak signal from the tech world is carrying over into architecture, with sanitaryware that is increasingly simple and pared back.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

Showcasing materials through digital printing

Wall covering patterns are becoming ever freer, thanks in particular to digital printing. It is less and less restricted by the material: digital printing is developing just as much with stone as with wood.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

Powerful Women, Powerful Flower

Not for the faint-hearted: some manufacturers are riding the feminisation of architecture to offer very floral interiors. You either like it or you don't, but it certainly does not leave you indifferent.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

Nature, not so fashionable after all

What did surprise us, on the other hand, was how little greenery there was in the spaces. Apart from a few stands such as that of Maisons du Monde, few brought nature into the living spaces. We hope this regret will be remedied by architects treating thresholds in a more blurred way.

Salon EquipHotel 2018 © Actuarchi

A little bonus: the Hôtel Monte-Cristo in Paris

Ahead of the show, the organiser of EquipHotel gave us a preview of the Hôtel Monte-Cristo in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. The hotel is the result of a three-storey rooftop extension. What makes the project unusual is that the hotelier called on an artist to design the rooms, and 80 artworks were created solely for the hotel. Overall, the hotel has gone all out on personalisation, a trend noted above: the aim is to offer each guest a unique room, so 90% of the hotel is bespoke, including the decoration as well as the finishes.

Hotel Monte-Cristo à Paris © Actuarchi

That said, this hotel is not for everyone. Personally, I am not at all taken with it. Generally speaking, all the men I showed the photos to hated it, whereas several women loved it. So, ladies, ask your other half before booking a night that will cost you between €200 and €600.