Harp Design

Harp Design is the interior design studio behind the Hotel Room of the Future, leading the creative vision, spatial planning, and coordination of partners and suppliers.

This room was not designed to predict what hotels might look like one day. It was designed to address the problems hotels are dealing with right now — poor guest sleep, rising water and energy costs, short refurbishment cycles, and increasing pressure to operate more responsibly.

Every decision in the Hotel Room of the Future reflects how Harp Design approaches hospitality interiors in the real world: design that performs, lasts, and makes operational sense.

 

Why Harp Design designed this room​

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Through live hotel projects, Harp Design repeatedly encounters the same frustrations:

• Rooms that look good but don’t work properly

• Materials that don’t stand up to real use

• Sustainability strategies that rely on guests behaving differently

• Refurbishments that create waste rather than long-term value

 

The Hotel Room of the Future was created to challenge these patterns and demonstrate a more considered approach — one where guest experience, operational performance, and longevity are designed together, not in isolation.

This project brings together thinking developed through real projects and ongoing industry conversations shared openly via The Interior Design Podcast.

 

Design led by evidence, not trends

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Harp Design does not design by trend forecasting alone. Decisions are informed by:

• How guests actually behave in hotel rooms

• How spaces are cleaned, maintained, and repaired

• How often rooms are refurbished — and why

• What operators wish they’d done differently

Many of these insights are explored through The Interior Design Podcast, where designers, suppliers, consultants, and hotel operators speak candidly about what works and what doesn’t. The Hotel Room of the Future is the physical outcome of those conversations.

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A room designed to last

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Unlike most exhibition builds, the Hotel Room of the Future has been designed to be dismantled and reused after the show. Joinery elements will return to The Interior Design Podcast studio, extending the life of materials and avoiding unnecessary waste.

This approach reflects Harp Design’s belief that sustainability is not about adding labels or marketing language — it is about making smarter decisions at every stage of design and delivery.

 

What this means for hotel owners

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The Hotel Room of the Future demonstrates how design can:

• Improve guest experience without adding complexity

• Reduce hidden operational costs

• Extend refurbishment cycles

• Support sustainability without compromising comfort

• Create rooms that work harder over time

 

This is not a theoretical exercise. It is a built example of how Harp Design approaches hospitality projects — thoughtfully, realistically, and with long-term value in mind.

 

Continue the conversation

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The Hotel Room of the Future is part of an ongoing exploration into better hospitality design led by Harp Design and shared through The Interior Design Podcast.

 

Explore the other partner pages to see how each element of the room contributes to a more considered way of designing hotels.

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