This is the first exhibition to explore the contemporary hotel as design laboratory and fantasy experience. “New Hotels for Global Nomads” combines architecture, interior design, photography, film, and works of art to show just how varied and dynamic hotels can be today. The Venetian in Las Vegas, an outstanding example of the gambling capital's new generation of scenographic hotels; the luxurious, sail‑shaped Burj al‑Arab in Dubai, the tallest hotel in the world, with many of its interior surfaces sheathed in gilding; The Hotel in Lucerne, which recreates movie scenes on its guestroom ceilings to express the hotel as cinematic experience: these are just some of the new generation of hotels explored in the exhibition. “New Hotels for Global Nomads” includes seven installations or projects which have been specially commissioned by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum for this exhibition. The five thematic sections are: urban hotels, hotels as global business, hotels on the move, natural hotels, and fantasy hotels. Throughout the exhibition, projects are represented through models, digital imagery, furnishings, music videos and/or full‑scale installations. There are also investigations into the meaning and functionality of the modern hotel experience through advertising, and its transference of design principles to other industries, including aircraft seating and new media technologies. In addition to featuring contemporary projects the exhibition will include furniture, advertisements and photographs of such legendary historic hotels.
Wright’s 1913–23 designs for The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo included the décor and furnishings. Used in the hotel’s Peacock banquet room, this chair’s hexagonal back and square seat echoed the building’s Mayan Revival exterior but Japanese design also had a profound influence on Wright’s work.