HD NextGen Forum 2026: Bespoke FF&E and Narrative Design Lead Next-Gen Hospitality Trends

Headlining the 2026 program was Jacu Strauss, Creative Director of Lore Group, renowned for designing and creating bespoke furniture, fixtures, and equipment for every Lore Group property — from Pulitzer Amsterdam and Riggs Washington D.C. to Sea Containers London. This "end-to-end original design" approach, covering everything from architecture to door handles, stands out sharply against an industry backdrop that has spent the past few years focused on cost reduction and standardization.

In his session, Strauss shared his immersive methodology: before each project, he relocates to the destination to live and breathe the local community, translating its culture and context into furniture forms, material palettes, and spatial narratives. He used Pulitzer Amsterdam as a case study — a boutique hotel converted from 17 historic canal-side townhouses, where not a single piece of furniture was sourced off-the-shelf; instead, his team collaborated with local artisans room by room and piece by piece. "The most memorable hotel spaces aren't designed — they grow out of the land," he noted. "When you put a mass-produced piece of furniture into a 300-year-old building, guests feel the dissonance, even if they can't articulate why."

Strauss previously served as Senior Designer at Tom Dixon's Research Studio, where he led the design of the landmark South Bank lifestyle hotel Sea Containers London and later reimagined multiple spaces within the property, including the award-winning Lyaness bar. His architectural training began in New Zealand and continued at London's Bartlett School of Architecture and Westminster University — a cross-cultural background that allows him to balance international vision with deep local grounding on every project.

Notably, Strauss dedicated nearly a third of his talk to the cost math behind bespoke FF&E. He acknowledged that full customization does not mean unlimited spending; rather, it means shifting budget away from expensive imported decorative materials and toward the handcrafted details of local artisans. A solid oak side table hand-finished by a local carpenter may cost far less than an imported Italian marble dining table, yet it delivers a level of warmth and narrative resonance that the marble cannot match — a message particularly resonant for hotel owners seeking differentiation within constrained budgets.

2026 Wave of the Future Honorees Announced

During the forum, Hospitality Design revealed its annual Wave of the Future honorees — now in its third decade, the award recognizes visionary yet proven young leaders shaping the next era of hospitality design. The selection criterion is being "young enough to be considered visionary, but tested enough to be considered accomplished." The eight 2026 honorees come from the world's top design firms, global hotel brand headquarters, and independent studios, spanning architecture, interior design, brand strategy, and lighting art:

The composition of the honorees itself reflects industry shifts: from Drummond — the first African American to earn dual master's degrees in architecture and lighting design from Parsons, whose work centers on reshaping African-American cultural narratives through hospitality spaces — to Mueller, who began her career in a custom millwork workshop in Bogotá before rising through Rockwell Group and launching her own practice. What unites them is a shared conviction: hotel design is no longer about "decorating a space," but about "weaving a narrative network of place, people, and memory."

Key Signals from the Forum

Three trends emerged clearly from the discussions and honoree backgrounds:

First, bespoke FF&E is replacing standardized procurement as the primary battleground for hotel brand differentiation. Multiple honorees observed that when launching new properties, global hotel groups increasingly avoid stock catalog furniture and instead ask design teams to develop a dedicated furniture language for each location — even within the same brand tier, furniture forms, fabrics, and colors are adjusted to reflect the cultural DNA of each city. Paige Henney's work on Hyatt's Bunkhouse Hotels exemplifies this: every property is designed completely independently, with not a single piece of furniture carried over from the previous one. What does this mean for Asia-Pacific furniture supply chains? Future hospitality project orders will compete not on price or lead time alone, but on the ability to support overseas design teams through the full custom process — from prototyping to mass production — while ensuring batch-to-batch consistency.

Second, local craft and material revival are bringing artisan networks back to the forefront. From Colombian handcrafted millwork to African-American community narratives, the new generation of designers is building direct relationships with local artisans and material sources, rather than relying on unified global supply templates. During her presentation, Mapa Mueller highlighted that for Hotel Albatross in Ocean Grove, New York, she sourced side tables and headboards from small woodworking workshops in Pennsylvania — each piece bearing the marks of hand-finishing. That "imperfection," she noted, is precisely what guests photograph and share. Meanwhile, Jimmie Drummond's projects focus on creating culturally rooted hospitality and public spaces for Black communities, weaving African-American history, handcraft, and modern function together. The implication for furniture exporters: overseas buyers may soon ask not just "Do you have FSC certification?" but "Can you help me source specific woods, fabrics, or techniques that align with this project's local cultural identity?"

Third, design as brand strategy — design executives are moving center stage. Design VPs and creative directors from Hilton, Hyatt, and Davidson personally attended and were honored at the forum, signaling that design has moved from a back-end execution function to the core of brand strategy. Krystel Sam at Hilton leads global brand design narratives — her work is not drawing a single guest room but defining the "design DNA" for the entire brand portfolio, within which every future full-service hotel will develop its own localized interpretation. This "global brand framework + local design expression" model demands more from furniture suppliers: the ability to understand brand guidelines, maintain consistency across mass replication, and simultaneously support local customization on a per-project basis.

Industry Context: Why Denver?

The choice of Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood was no accident. Over the past three years, the Denver and greater Rocky Mountain region has become one of North America's fastest-expanding markets for boutique and lifestyle hotels — from Luxury Collection to Hyatt Centric to a wave of independent properties. Denver is transforming from a "ski transfer point" into a year-round cultural destination. Hotel Clio itself is a boutique property developed and designed locally, with lobby, restaurant, and guest room furniture customized by Colorado artisans using regional timber. Holding the forum inside such a hotel was itself a manifesto: great hotel design is not drawn in a New York office — it is lived in, built on site, and rooted in local materials and communities.

The inaugural NextGen Forum in 2025 drew approximately 185 industry professionals in Texas. The 2026 edition in Denver expanded both its speaker lineup and the depth of discussion. Details on the 2027 location and dates will be announced in the coming months, but the signals from this year are clear: bespoke FF&E, local craft, and brand narrative will continue to shape demand in the global hospitality furniture engineering market over the next 12 months.