Local twist: Designers of the Future on location

This year’s three winners – Bethan Laura Wood, Seung-Yong Song and Jon Stam – were invited to create site-specific pieces for W Hotels in Mexico City, Bangkok and Verbier, Switzerland. Each designer visited their partner location to soak up its ambience and collaborate with local producers.

As a result, each hotel will feature a new interior product that reflects its local culture and materials. This is an innovative way of tapping into the Crafted Locale design direction in hospitality while maintaining the kudos of working with emerging talent from leading design economies, such as the UK, South Korea and Canada, where this year’s winners are from. 

The competition, in its eighth year, has previously honoured Asif Khan and Max Lamb, among others. The W Hotels Group has nailed the art of working with designers, DJs and fashion brands to win over a Millennial clientele, as we report in our Millennial Hotels microtrend.