What we learnt from our visit to Hix
From catching up with suppliers, to discovering new trends, it was great to the see the hotel interior design industry in such great spirits.
The main thing that struck us was the all-round commitment to sustainability visible at almost every stand. There are some incredibly innovative but simple solutions available to designers, which were exciting to see in action and explained by the suppliers themselves. Examples that included; water saving showers, fabrics made from recycled materials amongst more.
The Hix Event theme this year was ‘great things will grow’, encapsulating the idea of the ever-important connection between nature and design, a topic that we’ve been delving into a lot over recent years with some of our wellness focused projects.
We attended the talk, ‘A Designer’s Mindset: Creating environments where great things can grow’ held by WeWantMore and Come Di Meglio, who collaborated to design the ‘Mush Room’ bar at the event. We started by hearing from WeWantMore about their design process during their recent redesign of a hunting hotel in Belgium. Ruud, the speaker, urged designers to understand that beauty is found not created. In a world where we spend most of our time seeing through a screen it was fascinating and refreshing to hear how the agency went into the surrounding forest and drew inspiration directly from what was around them. From the texture of the grass and moss on the ground inspiring headboards in the bedroom to the way sunlight shines through trees being the inspiration behind the lighting in the bedrooms, WeWantMore’s design was truly driven by the environment.
We’re always identifying ways to activate the senses through design, but this took it to another level, it was fascinating.
Ruud then introduced Come who told us all about his design work with mycelium. Mycelium is a network of fungal threads, which Come has been using to create ecological architectural and interior design structures. WeWantMore and Come collaborated to design the Mush Room bar, which was created from the ground up using mycelium showing us that nature can structurally and aesthetically inspire us. Come’s passion for mycelium is not only driven by the evident environmental benefits the use of this material has but also the emotional benefits. Come believes that using this material allows people to feel more connected to the environment.
After the talk we immediately went to go experience the bar ourselves and were surprised by how durable the material was and also by how it activated all our senses. Visually the bar was unique with its mushroom like design, to touch the material was both soft, durable and textured and even the smell evoked the feeling of being amongst nature.
In true interior designer style, a day of networking and learning is not complete without drinks so we wrapped the day up with some cocktails, conversation and even a live saxophonist. Safe to say the Hix event 2022 did not disappoint!
