À TABLE!: hospitality focus at Ambiente 2018

God is in the detail, as architectural godfather Mies van der Rohe famously once said. Or maybe the devil is? At any rate, details matter when it comes to the built and material world we inhabit. While the tradition of architectural photography may promote a visual cult of unadulterated, depopulated interiors, we as users, when encountering and experiencing space, connect on an almost visceral level with the props that fill and animate it.

Nowhere more so, perhaps, than in the hospitality arena, where hotels, restaurants and cafés (or Horeca for short) become carefully considered stage sets for consumer pleasure – both of the food and drink served up and the spaces themselves. Beyond their utilitarian purpose, they also trade in conviviality, so their material detail – tableware, cutlery, etc. – becomes particularly critical to their overall mise-en-scène.

With this in mind, the leading international trade fair for consumer goods, Ambiente, has successfully positioned itself as the go-to exhibition platform for Horeca and the contract business in general, bringing together a wealth of brands to advise architects, interior architects, planners and other specifiers on how to make the detail of their projects as expressive as, and relevant to, their overarching concepts. The fair regularly secures around 4,500 exhibitors from more than 90 different countries.

With its next edition taking place at the Messe Frankfurt in February 2018, Ambiente’s Contract Guide, containing a range of information on all the specialist exhibitors present, in tandem with a system of specially marked stands, will make it easy for visitors to identify the suppliers and experts ready to talk business. Or, rather, business-to-business; how they can partner with professionals on their hospitality and other projects.

Take premium German porcelain manufacturer Bauscher, for example, in business since the late 19th century and squarely focused on contract – the hotel and gastronomy sectors, healthcare settings and professional catering. Its formally reduced Purity collection (the clue is in the name) has recently been specified for the German town of Lörrach’s new landmark venue, the 20-storey Steigenberger Hotel, designed by Külby+Külby Architekturbüro. The restaurant and bar see the optically light tableware act as visual counterpoint to the rest of the interior scheme with its rich palette of woods and upholstery.

From the pure to the shabby, Bavarian porcelain producer Schönwald’s fine wares have been selected for an international raft of projects, thanks to its clear business focus on solutions for the hospitality sector. Its Shabby Chic collection adds character and visual texture to a number of recently completed projects, including the Hyatt Regency Cologne’s new Meeting Campus, where guests come to brainstorm and strategise. Further hotels to receive the shabby treatment include the Four Seasons in Kuwait, the Courtyard Marriott in Brussels and San Jose’s Silver Creek Valley Country Club.

On the American East Coast, meanwhile, the restaurant at that non plus ultra of cultural destinations New York’s MoMA sees premium cutlery producer Robbe & Berking’s Riva collection deployed in its Michelin-starred restaurant, The Modern. Fitting, then, that the Wilfried Moll-designed pieces, which previously premiered at Ambiente, should have been acquired for the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt and the Neue Sammlung in Munich. Riva also graces the restaurant tables of that grande dame of hotels in Zurich, the Dolder Grand, which was renovated and extended by Foster + Partners.

Sometimes, however, you just want to order off-menu. Which is exactly what Hans Haas, Michelin-starred chef at Munich’s legendary gastronomic destination Tantris, did when he commissioned Tafelstern to create a bespoke set of porcelain for his restaurant, which has been welcoming discerning diners since 1971. Supremely reduced, yet nonetheless expressive, the eponymous tableware dovetails with the venue’s refined interiors. Now that’s having your cake and eating it.

HORECA GET-TOGETHER AT AMBIENTE 2018
For details on the Horeca Get-Together for professionals and how to participate
please contact horeca@messefrankfurt.com

Friday 9 February at 6pm

With short keynote by Daniel Anthes of the Zukunftsinstitut (Future Institute), entitled "How food trends shape tomorrow’s table culture"