The Effects Of Design

With design weeks wrapping up in New York and Miami this month, and Town & Country having just included us in a piece about design, it started conversations for us at 1 Hotels about what we’re doing to ensure we have not only the best in design, but also the best effects from design.

The influence of design on the human condition is a constant force in all of our lives.  Good design, or bad design for that matter, has the ability to affect our physical, mental, and emotional state in subtle ways. Over the course of days, years and generations, those subtle suggestions can impact behavior. Design affects our relationship with each other, how we see the world and how we feel inside. 

At 1 Hotels, it’s our intention to reconnect people with nature through good design and to do it sustainably. We’re constantly inspired by what we find in our environment and seek to bring the outside in.  We wanted to share what we do with you, and why, to inspire good design that is good for the world, wherever you are in it.

One of the deeper intentions driving our design ethos is an idea that if you can create empathy or appreciation in things derived from nature, people are more likely to place more value on those objects. So by using natural materials, we hope to affect a change in the way people value nature. 

Whether it be beetle kill pine in the halls of 1 Hotel South Beach, reclaimed redwood from nearby water towers for 1 Hotel Central Park, or living plants in each room, all have been placed there deliberately to engage the senses and bring our guests closer to the natural world.

Our magnificent design team has interpreted our ethos in differed ways through our different properties:

Wood reclaimed from Ponderosa Pines killed by mountain pine beetles in Colorado tell a deeper story of climate change and habitat loss.

Redwood timbers salvaged from decommissioned NYC water towers shows that beauty and purpose can be found with objects that would otherwise be discarded.

Terrariums at 1 Hotel South Beach showcase plants as sculpture and art forms in the every day; while low-light plants featured inside the rooms at 1 Hotel Central Park prove that nature can flourish inside the heart of a city.

We hope you can come experience 1 Hotels this summer and be inspired to find ways to design with nature in your life.

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