The Future of Luxury Hospitality: Blurring the Lines Between Architecture, Interiors, and Landscape
Ar. Anil Badan
Luxury hospitality is undergoing a remarkable evolution-one that excites me deeply as a designer who has spent decades shaping hotels, resorts, and convention spaces across India and beyond. Having grown up in a small town of Jammu, the idea of luxury was actually rooted largely in opulence and ornamentation when I started my journey of building a practice that thrives on creativity and perseverance. Today, we’re witnessing a seismic shift-luxury is no longer about excess; it’s about experience, emotion, and authenticity. And at the crux of this evolution lies an intrinsic design philosophy: a seamless integration of architecture, interiors, and landscape.
For me, hospitality design has always been “the junction of functionality, aesthetics, and guest experience,” an approach that invites people not just to see a space, but to feel it. This ethos has guided my practice, from the early days of hand-drawing 3D renders for Ramada Plaza to celebrated projects like The Khyber Himalayan Resort in Gulmarg and the Grand Mercure in Agra. In each of these, the design intent went far beyond the mere built form; it was about curating an environment where every component worked in harmony.
Breaking Silos: Holistic Design as New Luxury
The future of hospitality is in breaking down the compartmentalization of architecture, interior design, and landscape. These disciplines can no longer function in isolation. A hotel façade cannot be just a shell; it needs to speak the same language as the interior spaces it encases and the land it rises from. Similarly, interiors need to extend beyond surface-level aesthetics toward embracing climate, context, and human behavior. Landscapes cannot be just decorative buffers; they must become an intrinsic part of the spatial and sensorial narrative.
When we designed Khyber in Gulmarg, for example, the architecture emerged from the terrain itself. The interiors echoed the warmth needed to counter the region’s climate, while the landscape became an immersive extension of the resort experience. Often, guests tell us that they don’t feel as though they are entering a building-they feel as though they’re entering the mountains. To me, that is the very essence of blurred boundaries.
Experience Before Aesthetics
Today’s traveller seeks an emotional connection-something memorable, rooted in authenticity. This is why contemporary luxury hospitality is becoming inherently experiential. Subtle cultural cues, regional materials, and natural lighting have become just as important as the spatial organization or lavish décor. As designers, we need to create journeys, not structures.
I have always believed that architecture is “a dance between the past and the future while being immersed in the present.” This balance becomes particularly critical in hospitality, where every detail-from the volume of a lobby to the sensory envelope of a corridor-contributes to a guest’s perception of value. Luxury today is the quiet comfort of good design: intuitive planning, effortless circulation, and serene transitions across spaces that feel organically connected.
Sustainability as the Backbone of Future Hospitality
The hospitality industry can no longer think of sustainability as an add-on but rather something that is holistically embedded from the conceptual stage. A cohesive design approach allows architects to meet sustainability more organically. It now includes integrating landscape buffers with passive cooling strategies, using local materials in a way that tells regional stories, and designing interiors that are easier to maintain and evolve over time.
we always focus on accessibility, maintainability, and longevity. Luxury has to be inclusive rather than intimidating. No longer can a beautifully designed hotel be called luxurious if it is difficult to navigate, expensive to run, or insensitive to its environment.
The Way Forward
The future of luxury hospitality will be immersive, contextual, and deeply human-centric. As architecture, interiors, and landscape continue to merge into one singular design language, the focus shifts further toward emotional experience-how a space breathes, nurtures, soothes, and inspires. In every hospitality project we design at Studio B Architects, our intent is simple yet profound: to create spaces that stand as memorable experiences. When the boundaries between built form and environment dissolve, true luxury arises-not as a statement, but as a feeling.
Ar. Anil Badan is Founder & Principal Architect, Studio B Architects
