TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN HOSPITALITY: Palermo, International Design Competition

There is an on-going debate today on the subject of the relationship between city and architecture; this cultural and disciplinary backdrop requires in-depth studies on a variety of themes and a great number of disciplinary contributions. Over the centuries Man has left his mark on the land and in order to fully understand the wide- ranging modifications, it could be important to assess architecture specifically built for hospitality; in particular, its conceptual, spatial, functional and technological peculiarities need to be considered. These have undergone gradual changes over the course of time, in a continuing attempt to try to guarantee a high level of quality for guests. The project and research have occasionally proceeded at the same rate, and at other times have been shadowing each other; there has been an infinite variety of proposals, suggesting differing approaches and in relation to various historical- cultural periods. In the course of time, these have converged in the present innovative and modern concept of hospitality. Through its symbolic function allied to a new planning creativity, architecture in new hotel structures represents a valid operating tool for activating the series of processes demanded by society and related contexts, for cultural and urban redevelopment. Anthropological-scientific values have by now been established and are clearly linked to the issue of hospitality; hotels in big cities often taken on the role of cultural-political-worldly centre, and all this testifies to the importance of research analysing relational principles and systems that the architecture of hospitality has always integrated into areas where Man has trodden and left his mark. Examining the themes of hospitality culture undoubtedly represents a complex and pertinent field of research. One has to describe the aspects of planning and conceptual innovation, via the observation of emblematic interventions provided by the international panorama (all however connected to the macro-theme of the present-day, of opulence, of originality, of exoticism, of wellbeing); this might help stimulate the critical dimension of the debate regarding the role taken on by these urban structures in the contemporary world, under the social and cultural pro le, as well as that of town-planning, architecture and technology.