An architectural vision: Hotel access for people with disabilities

Award winners: Four architects have developed design solutions for an architecture that makes a difference.

Purcell architects Raymond Higgins, Bruno Bernardo, Nicola Smith and Toby Massawe are experienced in hotel design. They have a strong belief in the importance of everybody being able to enjoy a hotel break. Putting their creative minds together, they’ve created a design guide and accreditation system proposal. Hotels would be graded based on their access quality and would gain accreditation presented as a rating system.

The team aim to take away the stress for disabled people and their friends and family, and make it easier to arrive, access and navigate a hotel. Having worked on the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London for 3.5 years, they understand the real challenge with improving accessibility, especially within a historic and listed building context.

“Our vision is for all hotels to attain an ‘Accessibility Accreditation,’ a design-led rating system that assesses hotels based on their accessibility for all abilities. Our proposal outlines design parameters to be implemented as a design guide. Our submission to the Bespoke Access Awards combines conservation with innovative access design.”

We’re delighted to be awarded for the Service Applications (Training) category by @bespokehotels for our hotel access architectural vision.