‘Extreme’ home working of past years seems to be behind us. We’re back to the office – then to lunch out –, breakfast at the café, back to the hotel. But patrons want more comfort, convenience, sustainability and privacy.

In contract furniture, functionality and modularity are always the focus, but accompanied by revolutionary and sustainable materials, e.g., advanced resins to neutralize bacteria and natural quartz-enriched surfaces that increase strength and hygiene.

And what about design? In recent years, the contamination between interior design and out-of-home layouts has intensified: they are ‘communicating vessels’ to which hospitality design contributes, in particular, on two issues, as Matteo Ingaramo, Past President in charge for Institutional Affairs at POLI.design explains.

“In the first place, human digitality, or digitization aimed at improving the user experience in addition to machine performance, especially through AI and other next-generation technologies. Secondly, a design conceived to constantly improve real day-to-day operations, a quality everyday life we might say, which moves from hospitality to the home experience.”

“The ways in which these issues are being translated into aesthetics are still evolving," Ingaramo continues, "and I believe that the coming months between now and Host 2025 will be interesting in this respect. This will be an issue that we will particularly take into account when evaluating the 'smartness' of applications for the next Smart Label.”

Smart Label - Host Innovation Award is the award by Fiera Milano and HostMilano, in collaboration with POLI.design and under the patronage of ADI - Association for Industrial Design, which rewards products and solutions capable of marking a step change in innovation for hospitality. At Host 2025, at fieramilano in Milan-Rho from 17 to 21October, Smart Label will return for its seventh edition, accompanied by the Design Talks meetings, which bring architects and designers to the fair.