29 October - 1 November 2025
JW Marriott Khao Lak, Thailand
For the first time in three years, Hi Design returned to Asia in November; reconnecting the region’s design community in Malaysian Borneo and providing a platform for insight, inspiration and, of course, meaningful business.
As always, our seminar strand once more served to tackle the sector’s most pressing issues, from sustainability to Asia’s post-pandemic recovery. Here we revisit five of the most significant talking points from the stage and beyond.
Even with the country still relatively closed for travel, the shadow of China loomed large. With the world’s most substantial hotel development pipeline, it remains the key market for the region – but as our State of Play panel mused, a gloomy economic outlook is bound to dent its fortunes and may make for a riskier proposition for operators.
For designers, then, the problem is one of borders. With a harsh quarantine programme still in play, for those based within China international projects are increasingly difficult to both secure and manage, while for those outside, this land of opportunity feels at times out of reach. The future looks uncertain.
As WOW Architects principal Daniel Pillai espoused, impactful design is about the courage to take risks and make brave decisions. The studio’s pioneering, innovative work is predicated on a desire to create projects that change how we see the world, as well as how we navigate it.
Pillai believes in considering the relationship between designer and client as one built on shared vision and values. And if a client’s vision doesn’t align? Simple, don’t work with them. A controversial position that remained a topic of conversation long after the session.
With many of the region’s recent landmark projects helmed by design studios based in the West, our Hot Topics panel discussed the importance of appointing local designers. The risks of not? One dimensional design that presents a pastiche of Asia or, worse, homogenously ‘international’ design that has nothing to say about a sense of culture and place.
For our panel, the region’s rich design legacy is already being degraded, and its distinctive voice getting lost. There’s still a way back, but it will mean owners and operators taking decisive action and trusting in local talent to do the job.
Trust is also an issue for consumers, as our State of Play panellists discussed – when presented with market research showing Asian travellers will gravitate towards familiar brands in a post-pandemic world. For larger hotel groups then, there lies an opportunity to capture audiences seeking the recognisable and dependable; and for designers to capitalise on this with schemes that speak to comfort and wellbeing.
But it also comes with risks: for owners and operators, damage guest trust and it could be harder than ever to regain it; for designers, that in chasing the appeal of familiarity, they fail to innovate and challenge, boring consumers in the process – it is a tightrope to be walked.
Inspiral Architects’ Charlie Hearn closed the seminar strand with an ecological rallying cry, explaining no one can avoid the coming climate catastrophe and no one can avoid taking responsibility for it.
For him, and our audience who joined in the conversation, the hospitality industry has a duty to lead the charge – able to both educate consumers and also shape the practices of developers for the better. But the time for chat is over and the time for meaningful action is now. What does a brighter future look like? One where sustainability no longer needs to be on the agenda.
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