As part of AHEAD Global 2024, judges from all four regions will join forces to determine this year's worldwide winners.
The panel will decide the Top 10 best-of-the-best from this year's entries, before selecting the winner of the Ultimate Accolade, the most coveted award of the series.
AHEAD also has a specialised global panel for its Sustainability awards, comprising experts and advisors from across the hospitality industry.
Ruud Belmans is Co-Founder and Creative Director of WeWantMore, a design studio specializing in interior design and branding, based in Antwerp and London. Founded in 2006, the studio has over 40 employees and a diverse international client base in hospitality, retail, and workplace design.
WeWantMore combines branding and interior design, creating unique and experiential projects. Under Belmans’ creative lead, WeWantMore explores the junction of design, art and entertainment. The team stands for authentic ideas, crafted to perfection. Some of their notable clients include MGallery, Corinthia, Hilton, Doubletree and Movenpick. As a result, WeWantMore’s interior designs have been rewarded with AHEAD, Architizer and Design Week awards among others.
Sustainability is an integrated pillar of the studio. WeWantMore is the founding partner of the Monark software to track environmental impact in the design process. In addition, the studio’s projects that shine a light on sustainable design includes ‘The Mush Room’ – an experimental installation built in 2023 at HIX London, taking a theme of ‘great things will grow’. The result was a large-scale mycelium bar in collaboration with art agent La Succulente and artist Côme Di Meglio. Belmans is keen to ensure these types of sustainable materials can work in commercial environments on a larger scale.
Gregoir is a consultant and former Director of Arup, as well as the Global Director of Arup’s Hotels and Leisure Group.
A chartered engineer with over 35 years of experience, he has led the design and management of landmark commercial, educational, residential, and hospitality projects. Gregoir has collaborated with world-renowned architects such as Zaha Hadid and Wilkinson Eyre on numerous award-winning projects globally. Passionate about innovative and sustainable solutions, he strives to ensure that designs are both environmentally conscious and commercially viable.
In the past two decades, Gregoir has been deeply involved in the design of international hotels and resorts for prestigious brands like Hyatt, Starwood, and Four Seasons. He co-authored Arup’s Hotel and Resort Design Guide and developed energy consumption models for various climates, contributing to environmentally responsible design. As a frequent speaker at global conferences and a long-term member of the ITP Advisory Board, Gregoir has shared his expertise on sustainability and hospitality trends.
Since retiring from Arup in 2014, Gregoir established his own consultancy, advising architects, hotel operators, and developers on all aspects of building design. His clients include Zaha Hadid Architects and Aman Hotels. He is currently the Development Director for RND Investment, overseeing a multimillion-dollar resort project in Varko Bay, Greece.
RH Contract provides a business-to-business partnership like no other in the industry. With our multi-category product assortment, unparalleled product design and curation capabilities, uniquely integrated interior design approach, the benefits of RH’s purchasing power, and our global supply chain and logistics scale, RH Contract has proven to be a unique, valuable project partner.
Visit siteThe brand Lasvit, founded in 2007 by Leon Jakimič, sheds new light on Bohemian glass and takes it into the next millennium. Lasvit combines the authenticity of glass craft with innovative technologies and creative craftsmanship. In a few short years, Lasvit has established itself as the authority delivering bespoke lighting sculptures and art installations made from hand-blown glass.
Collaborations with renowned designers and artists produce also unique glass collections. Nendo, Ross Lovegrove, Daniel Libeskind, Maarten Baas, Czech legends René Roubíček and Bořek Šípek are among those who choose Lasvit in order to embody their unconventional artistic vision, endow it with the precision and mastery of our glassmakers, and produce impressive creative oeuvre. This is a manifesto of Lasvit’s uncompromising mission: To transform glass into breathtaking light and design experiences.
Visit siteTOPHOTELPROJECTS is the heart of a global community of suppliers and decision-makers which initiates and supports the communication relating to building, design, furnishing, and operation of hotels.
We are a German research firm covering global hotel constructions, that over a decade branched out into hospitality events, media, and hotel design.
No other company comes close in supporting the hotel industry by efficiently combining different business areas into one integrated solution.
Ever since the hotel industry veteran Rolf W. Schmidt founded the company in 2009, our core activity is building the world’s most comprehensive directory of:
We took the complex, ever-evolving global hospitality industry and introduced it to our German sense of efficiency and sheer hard work.
Our research team of some 25 experienced professionals spends 1,800 hours a month researching hotel projects around the world.
Our database has been 10 years in the making, during which we gathered information on over 24,000 hotel projects and 120,000 related companies. Currently, our database has information on more than 6,500 ongoing hotel projects worldwide – important details included.
TOPHOTELPROJECTS today represents an exhaustive, ever-growing network of professionals from all major sectors of the hospitality industry: owners, developers, investors, brands, operators, architects, designers, and suppliers.
In 2019, TOPHOTELPROJECTS and Sleeper Media signed a strategic partnership with mutual co-investment. This partnership combines digital expertise and in-depth data of TOPHOTELPROJECTS with Sleeper Media’s leading hospitality offerings. It is all about synergy and a win for all sectors of the industry.
Visit siteAkula, a leading manufacturer of marine-grade outdoor furniture has established itself as a trusted partner for the world’s leading hospitality and cruise operators, offering an extensive range of solutions designed to meet the unique needs of these demanding environments.
With a unique dual focus on custom manufacturing and quick-ship capabilities, Akula stands out. This approach allows them to provide personalised solutions that cater to specific design and functionality requirements while running a quick-ship program that ensures timely delivery to meet tight project timelines. This makes Akula a preferred choice for clients who require bespoke designs and efficiency.
Engineered to withstand the rigors of outdoor environments, Akula's products are built to last. Every piece is manufactured to endure extreme conditions, including UV exposure, seawater, chlorinated water, and fluctuating temperatures, with minimal maintenance required. This commitment to durability ensures that Akula’s furniture not only enhances outdoor spaces but also offers long-term value.
Akula's global footprint, with offices in the UK, USA, UAE, and Hong Kong, underscores its worldwide reach and ability to serve clients across the globe. This international presence facilitates a deep understanding of market needs and ensures that Akula is not just a name but a global standard in outdoor furniture.
Akula’s success is rooted in its dedication to quality, innovation, and customer service. By continuously pushing the boundaries of design and technology, Akula remains at the forefront of the outdoor furniture industry, delivering solutions that are as robust as they are elegant.
Visit siteKALDEWEI – your worldwide partner for iconic bathroom solutions shaped from superior steel enamel. KALDEWEI’s extensive range of bathtubs, shower surfaces, and washbasins are ideally suited to the demands of the hospitality industry delivering an increased level of health and wellbeing awareness for your hotel. The smooth, non-porous glass surface not only gives you security against germs and dirt but is also the material of the future. KALDEWEI steel enamel is made of 100% natural materials and is 100% recyclable, so it’s good for your guests and the planet too.
To learn more visit KALDEWEI.com
Visit siteFounded in 1892 in Switzerland, LAUFEN has become one of the world's leading companies for sanitary ceramics. Today LAUFEN Bathrooms provided integrated bathroom concepts with high-quality products, ranging from sanitary ceramics to bathtubs and shower trays, furniture, faucets, and accessories.
Visit siteMaison&Objet (SAFI, a joint subsidiary of Ateliers d'Art de France and RX France) has been leading and bringing together the international decoration, design, and lifestyle community since 1994.
Its trademark is its ability to elicit productive international meetings, to drive the visibility of the brands that join its exhibitions and its digital platform, but also its singular instinct for highlighting the trends that will set the heart of the interior design planet racing. Maison&Objet's mission is to reveal talent, to offer opportunities for discussion and inspiration both online and offline, and to facilitate the development of businesses.
With two annual exhibitions and Paris Design Week in September, Maison&Objet serves as an indispensable barometer for the entire sector. Online since 2016, MOM (Maison&Objet and More) allows buyers and brands to continue their exchanges, launch new collections, and make contacts beyond physical meetings. Weekly launches of new products provide an ongoing boost to the industry. In 2023, Maison&Objet rolled out new digital services, and MOM also became a marketplace.
On social networks, discoveries are made on a daily basis by a community of almost 2 million active professionals on Facebook, Instagram (+1M followers), Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Xing, WeChat, and now TikTok.
Spearheading the Paris Capitale de la Création label, Maison&Objet is a catalyst for positioning Paris as a major magnet for international creative talents.
Visit siteDesigning and manufacturing everything in bathrooms.
Roca began life as a family business manufacturing cast iron radiators at a factory in Gavà, near Barcelona in 1917. Over the years, the portfolio gradually expanded and by 1929, Roca entered the bathroom environment for the first time. With an attentive focus on social changes, Roca has since been pioneering when tackling issues surrounding sustainability, design, and technology, and remains at the forefront of these innovations today. Today, Roca reaches over 170 countries, supplied by 76 production plants with more than 20,000 employees worldwide. After one hundred years, Roca is still proud to call itself a family business.
Visit siteVilleroy & Boch, formed in 1748, is a leading ceramics manufacturer steeped in European culture and history, and one of the biggest international premium brands in the areas of bathrooms and wellness.
Villeroy & Boch offers the finest and most innovative bathroom products and furnishing concepts for both private customers and property developers. The company is a pioneer in the realm of ceramic product design and innovation. Villeroy & Boch beautiful, high-quality products are hallmarks of French design flair and German engineering efficiency.
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