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 Spearheading the Accor Hospitality group’s drive towards guest rooms that will match or even exceed tomorrow’s clients’ wants and needs, Michel Gicquel has been coordinating a profound reflection on the topic. So how is the living space evolving? |
Michel Gicquel Artistic Director Innovations and Design Department Accor A graduate of the ESTP school of engineering in France, Michel Gicquel is also an independent interior architect. He has extensive experience in the renovation of prestigious company head offices, restaurants and exceptional private homes. Michel first began to work with Accor in the 1980s, and established the “ Recherche & Style” division in 1994, which later became Innovations & Design Department for Accor. In his current role of Artistic Director – Innovations and Design Department Accor, he contributes actively to the evolution of the Accor brands, to the development of innovative products and services, as well as monitoring the market trends that impact the brands. For Sofitel, Michel has contributed to the overall brand repositioning programme specifically in the area of Innovations and Design. |
The hotel, like the home habitat, is evolving towards a third era: the digital, or virtual age, where the distribution of space is changing. To summarise this, for the 20 centuries of the rural age, habitats were singular spaces, where one would eat, sleep and share everything in a communal or tribal manner around a central campfire. The industrial revolution saw a physical mutation. People moved into towns, and the homes, epitomised by the Haussmann or Victorian styles, were made up of rooms that were dedicated to functions. In the past decades, we’ve seen an explosion in world population, a looming energy crisis, not to mention environmental issues. So on the one hand, we have pressure and on the other a fundamental evolution. At the same time, we’re seeing the emergence of smaller, cheaper and more reliable nomadic products. | |
| Accor’s Innovations & Design Department Accor’s Innovations & Design Department is made up of 20 people, mainly architects or interior designers, who work on both new projects and renovation in all the Accor Group Brands, from Formule 1 to the Sofitel. Their goal is to guarantee the coherence of the projects and integrity of each Brand by working alongside with Architects, Designers, Landscape Architects, Lighting Engineers, etc. Their three strategic priorities are design management, technological innovation, and product innovation. > Extract from feature interview done at Pullman Bercy with Michel Gicquel - available in our online edition (PDF file on the right). |
Consequently, the evolution of society leads the evolution of our habitat, and the habitat becomes one of adaptability and flexibility. We’re not in the “all open” concept such as the loft, which is not a great solution. We’re not in the “all closed” as we’ve had over the past decades; we have arrived at the age of CHOICE… and that’s what’s fundamental and that is what is going to influence the next 50 years of interior architecture. The layout of hotel rooms, and the layout of the home habitat will be centred on adaptability and flexibility. Living spaces are being re-constructed. If you look at the concept room here at the Pullman hotel, it was made with the aim of translating a new way of living spaces. The technologies we have used for this are part of the sum, but the veritable mutation is the reflection on space. This has nothing to do with technology, but technology is what allows it. So one should not confuse the issues here, because technology for technology’s sake has no interest. It is only there to accompany a mutation of society, and here we are really in the midst of a profound mutation. |
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| © Photo: Accor – Room 217 Sofitel Arc de Triomphe. Designer: Michel Gicquel |
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