Memorable entrances into the atmosphere

The last cross­roads whe­re we turn off. A long ave­nue lined with pop­lars indi­ca­ting the way. The gent­le rust­ling crunch of the gra­vel dri­ve­way anti­ci­pa­ting our host’s elbow shake, the flowers in the win­dow, red wine sta­ins from past visits … What do we remem­ber after a par­ty? What deci­des whe­ther we like to come back? Even to sports shops and salons, restau­rants and fashion hou­ses, phar­maci­es and libra­ri­es, muse­ums and com­pa­ny head­quar­ters? Is it pro­ducts? Advice? Qua­li­ty? All important. But the most con­vin­cing invi­ta­ti­on is in the expe­ri­ence of hospitality.

Hos­pi­ta­ble archi­tec­tu­re, spaces, words and aes­the­tics live from a thousand litt­le things – and in sum from sha­ping encoun­ters ins­tead of sales. Faça­de and pave­ment design beco­me a tan­gi­ble invi­ta­ti­on. Doors, deli­bera­te­ly used, beco­me por­tals that give a clear direc­tion: insi­de … whe­re bet­ter con­ver­sa­ti­ons hang on a spe­cial coat hook than on pri­ce tags. And out­side, a gent­le sound­scape pene­tra­tes – sel­ec­ted play­lists, in the best case adapt­ed to the visi­tors of the moment, or even live artists.*

Atmo­sphe­re! – that the crew of the Enter­pri­se alre­a­dy knew, no, felt – is how you can tell if you are clo­se to home. Not cheap atten­ti­on, but valuable and subt­le ges­tu­res of hos­pi­ta­li­ty. On which advice and the pro­duct world can ride along like on a Mis­sis­sip­pi wheel steam­er. Which make us for­get that we are actual­ly here by chan­ce and stran­gers, that our trai­ners don’t fit the histo­ry of the house or our wal­let does­n’t fit this neigh­bour­hood. Wel­co­me as a guest in a place whe­re we would not have expec­ted it, and every visit beco­mes a celebration.

* Even more impul­ses and 10 obser­va­tions from the hos­pi­ta­li­ty indus­try can be found on the new plat­form ‘Zeit­geist’ by shop fit­ting spe­cia­list Vizo­na, edi­ted and desi­gned by ate­lier 522.

 

 

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