The Five+ Sensotel hotel concept exhibition in Willisau, central Switzerland, conceived by architect Yasmine Mahmoudieh, explores the use of modern technology and materials in hotels to engage the senses.
 

Hotels are frequently referred to as laboratories for experimentation in new ways of living. In the hotel design lab, the chemist is architect and interior designer Yasmine Mahmoudieh. Responsible for the highly respected refurbishment of Arne Jacobsen's Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen and winner of the European Hotel Design Awards technology prize for her Haus Rheinsberg Hotel, Mahmoudieh has long been on the lecture and conference circuit. The Five+ Sensotel hotel concept exhibition is the culmination of her hands-on experience in the use of modern technologies and materials to realise holistic living solutions. Indeed, the realisation is such that visitors to the exhibition can see practical solutions that are available now.

The Five+ Sensotel exhibition, in the artistic enclave of Willisau in central Switzerland, was conceptualised as a way of providing a complete lodging experience that appeals to our senses, while also being personalised. "Room atmosphere, which touches all the senses, plays a key role in determining one's feelings of well-being", says Mahmoudieh. The amplified sensory side of the experience helps to reinforce the memory and recognition of the guests' stay, to differentiate the product and to generate repeat business. Divided into two distinct parts, the exhibition visitor first gets to heighten their sensory awareness in a series of five circular "sense rooms", where they can listen to the natural sounds of running water, singing birds and rumbling thunder; touch the rough and the smooth; scratch a white hemisphere to release smells of titanium or green glass; get flashed in a strobe room; or distinguish the sweet from the sour chewing on a series of identical white tablets. Once you are fully "sensed up" make for the real thing – the hotel room and suite.The scenarioYou wake slowly to the gentle glow of the rising sun that illuminates your translucent bed headboard, with the low murmuring of birdsong in the background. You swing out bed, rising from the homeopathic and eco-friendly, recyclable mattress made from natural vegetable oils transformed into a latex substitute. Walking across the gently undulating carpet reminds you of the beach when the tide is out. Your footsteps release your chosen scent from its micro-encapsulation bonding to the carpet as you make towards the opaque Plexiglas-walled bathroom.

Moving images of dandelions blowing in the wind decorate the wall. The Corian™ and wood twin basin is underlit, for a soft and easy start to the day, using one of your pre-programmed light settings. For a closer inspection, you select another setting that brightens both the room as a whole and the mirror in particular. You step into the shower and opt for the full-on tropical downpour from the sheet RainSky™ shower unit, flush fitted in the ceiling. A refreshing and alive minty scent fills the air as the steam rises, markedly different from the calming musk of yesterday's bath.Technology and materialsTechnology and materials are the keys to the above realisation. From carpets to wall coverings, to the very walls themselves, new materials abound, set in close juxtaposition to natural timber and stone. Technological advances have developed to include scent in multimedia light and sound mood settings. These areas of advancement are bundled together with other functional aspects that enhance the experience of both guest and hotel operator, in a working solution, albeit one that requires some of the fine-tuning associated with all new installations.

Two new ideas emerge in carpeting from Tisca Tiara. Firstly, the hand-tufted wool carpet that is hand-sheared, like the sheep from which the wool came, to create unique wave-like surfaces – awesome in bare feet. Secondly, and somewhat more prosaically, Tisca Tiara has also developed a system to produce carpeting in widths of 13.5m. This theoretically allows, in a new-build hotel of exact dimensions, the carpet for the corridor and the rooms "hanging" of it, to be made as a single piece. The whole piece can also be patterned as required – a border for the corridor, different colours in the room to delineate different areas. The limitation comes in transporting the carpet to site. Working closely with Tisca Tiara is Sissel Tolaas of the International Flavours and Fragrances Inc (IFF), re_searchLab in Berlin. With help from perfumer Christophe Laudamiel and olfactory consultant Christoph Hornetz of Les Christophs, scents have been encapsulated in micro-ceramic pods that, when mechanically broken (by walking on them, for example), the smell is released. The secret has been to bond these pods to the individual carpet threads in such a way and with such a high density that the smell properties remain for up to a year. Further scent pods can be added as a top-up or a different scent chosen.

Further work in the field of scent includes the ability to select from a range of smells to be emitted into a bathroom or cupboard space. Choose the smell of fresh laundry in a cupboard or a soothing scent to accompany a relaxing bath. Recently developed for Proctor & Gamble are Scent CDs that work by releasing scent rather than sound into a room. The CDs, named after "emotional themes" such as Uberprecious and Best Golf Resorts, play in a plastic CD unit that still has a prototype feel to it. While appealing to our olfactory senses in such a technical way is a new addition to the creation of mood, sound and lighting have long been used in this way. Now a one-stop control panel can pre-programme all three to then be selected as wished. Lighting is used in new ways in the exhibition to create certain moods or link spatial areas. The ambient lighting installation above the bed headboard can be set to simulate sunrises and sunsets. And whilst it isn't new to use glass bathroom doors to provide a secondary lighting source for a guest bedroom, constructing a cupboard with backlit Plexiglas doors is a further interpretation of this idea.Given that Plexiglas is sufficiently rigid enough to be a material from which to construct internal walls, its opaque qualities mean whole walls can now be backlit with moving video images, stills or just colours. "It'll be another 10 years before we actually see wall coverings that can change colour. Just as we've been told for the last 50 years," warns Chris Luebkeman, director and leader of Arup's Global Foresight and Innovation Initiative. Again Five+ Sensotel provides a practical solution, certainly one more affordable than any flat screen TV alternative currently available. Other wall coverings used in the exhibition include slightly less practical creased wallpaper, just waiting to get ripped, and woven materials. Developments that work aesthetically for the guest and practically for the hotel operator include cantilevered furnishings, such as bedside tables that swing for perfect positioning while also making cleaning underneath easier. Furniture manufacturer Team by Wellis has a bed (admittedly not included in the exhibition) that rotates 360º giving great flexibility in the use of space and again providing operational benefits.

Corian™ is much used in the bathroom area, where it is combined with dark wood to create an obvious but rarely seen twin basin unit, where each user looks towards the other. The patterned base unit swivels out from under each sink to create a drawer. It is also internally lit providing another ambient light source. Dornbracht, the leading bathroom fittings designers, have supplied the shower units that provide a real downpour. With a requirement of 40-50l of water per minute, recent commissions for Park Hyatt hotels in Seoul and Beijing had to restrict the use of these shower units to suites only due to limitations in warm water supply during the hotel peak of 7.00-11.00am. Such restrictions mean the unobtrusive RainSky™ units will probably most likely been seen as signature pieces in the senior suites and spa areas of luxury hotels.The hotel experienceThere is still much to be done to meet the ever-increasing expectations of the hotel guest. Personalisation in terms of mini-bar contents and pillow menus are now commonplace in luxury hotels, but it cannot be long before the technology can be enhanced to preset the TV channels or speed dial phone buttons to match those of each guest.

Cost is not really a barrier, as many of these solutions are no more expensive than their traditional counterparts - or only marginally so - and often this is outweighed by operational efficiency improvements. Ideas need to gain further credence - Plexiglas may already be seen as more flexible, cheaper and safer alternative to glass, but it has yet to be accepted as a wall material suitable to a luxury environment. And, as always, to reach a wider audience requires some re-education. Visiting big-chain hoteliers were bemused when they discovered they were looking at working examples and not a fantasy. This is a reality, combining four of our senses with the good taste of Yasmine Mamoudieh.