Grand Hotel

Luxury accommodation and cultural conduit—the history, design, and architecture of a social and cultural phenomenon

From the utilitarian inns that punctuated ancient trade routes to the worldwide network of Hilton and Hyatt, the hotel has transitioned from a marginal building type to a cultural phenomenon within the global economy. Terms like “boutique” and “lifestyle” have become ubiquitous buzzwords in the vocabulary of the hotel, and they engender a new vision of an affective and responsive spatial environment. Architecture and interior design have always played a crucial role in the development of hotels, but their purpose has become more and more decisive, transforming the building type into the advanced form of integrated design that it is today.

The scope of the publication is global, an acknowledgment of the pervasive presence of a commercial network that is architecturally formed, geographically distributed, and socially defined.