Bathing pond art installation opens at London’s King’s Cross
11-5-2015
The King’s Cross Pond Club, a naturally filtered outdoor swimming pool, is part of the redevelopment of King’s Cross in London. Soil and Water (the name of the project), will be the UK’s first man-made bathing pond that’s filtered using natural processes.
The pool is designed by studio Ooze Architects (Rotterdam) and Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč. The pool is built two metres above ground level, with salvaged bricks and stones used to create a basin that measures 40 by 10 metres. The pool is both an art installation and a public facility and will be cleaned using wetland flora and submerged plants rather than chemicals or machinery. The local community participated in key aspects of the planting.
Swimming pool is located at London’s King’s Cross
It is located within the new Lewis Cubitt Park, close to the campus of design school Central Saint Martins, which forms part of the 27-hectare redevelopment of the area behind King’s Cross station. The swimming pool will open in May 2015.
“The project is an attempt to capture the dynamicity conveyed by the changes within the area, a moment in time where new possibilities and possible futures arise,” said architect Eva Pfannes, who co-founded Ooze with Sylvain Hartenberg. Architects Ooze and artist Potrč have been collaborating on projects since 2008. Ooze’s projects are of a participative and multidisciplinary nature. “The project is a small-scale enclaved environment, a living laboratory to test balance and to question a self-sustaining system including one natural cycle – water, land and the human body. The aim is communication with visitors, describing the balance of man with nature, and the balance of living in a sustainable city,” she continued.
The King’s Cross Pond Club is engineered and built by Europe’s leading natural pool designer BIOTOP and its UK partner, Kingcombe Aquacare Ltd. The pond will be operated as a swimming club by Fusion Lifestyle.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ by KFC
7-5-2015
KFC in the UK has unveiled the first edible coffee cup. It’s called the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’. The cups are currently under development but most probably available from this summer onwards.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ is made from biscuit, wrapped in sugar paper and lined with a layer of white chocolate. The chocolate keeps the coffee hot and the cup crispy. The biscuit slowly softens as the chocolate melts which it does in the mouth and not in the hand. The ‘Scoff-ee Cups’ will mark the launch of KFC’s Seattle’s Best Coffee (made from fairtrade Arabica beans) across England. We did spot edible coffee cups before, like the milk & cookie shots by Dominique Ansel.
Food scientist created the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’
Food scientists The Robin Collective created the edible cup in partnership with KFC. The cups are also infused with different scents (Coconut sun cream, freshly cut grass and wild flowers), that are known to improve your mood. And that together with a great coffee, there’s no better way to start your day!
GPS-Bottles leads finders to the Heineken experience
6-5-2015
Amsterdam’s Heineken Experience has littered GPS-enabled beer bottles through the city which can lead curious residents and tourists to the beer museum.
Anyone picking up one of the bottles around Amsterdam will feel the bottle vibrate and see the cap light up as it activates. The in-built compass and rotating cap will then guide the finder through the city directly to the Heineken Experience.
GPS-bottles instead of flyers
The idea is to boost the visitors to the branded museum, which saw 730,000 visitors last year. Heineken teamed up with JWT Amsterdam to attract more visitors to their brewery. The custom-made Heineken bottles had an integrated GPS system designed to lead people who picked them up back to the Heineken Experience brewery.
Dirk Lubbers, manager of the Heineken Experience, said: “Handing out flyers is not very Heineken, so we wanted to play on the brand’s famous inventiveness, wit and pioneering spirit and create something that stands out for potential visitors. Our key differentiator is that we invite each visitor on a cultural and historical journey, enabling them to interact with the brand. This initiative is a great representation of our approach: innovative, dynamic, surprising, and always leave you with unforgettable memories.”
Ideal white shirt for restaurants
1-5-2015
A white shirt that can’t be harmed by dirty stains! Really? Elizabeth & Clarke, the producers of ‘The Unstainable™ White Shirt, ensure coffee or red wine stains are history with the shirt. Besides that, it also perfectly fits every (women) body shape.
Every now and then there are some projects on Kickstarter that gain the money needed fast and exceed it by far. The Unstainable™ White Shirt’ is one of those projects. It looks like the ideal shirt to wear when working. Especially when you are clumsy and regularly get stains on your shirt 
Made with nanotechnology
Because of the nanotechnology, all kinds of water and oil based products are kept off. Transpiration will even vaporize before it reaches the fibers. Water based products, oil based products and transpiration are easy to wash off.
Elizabeth & Clarke think they have invented an affordable and easily washable shirt, ideal for women. We are very interested in the cleanliness of the shirt in a real restaurant environment.
On-Air will be a new iconic building in Amsterdam
29-4-2015
Real estate developer COD, architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis agency OMA / Rem Koolhaas, the NH Hotel Group and sustainable developer ‘Being Development’ have joined forces and came up with the ‘On-Air’ building as new icon for Amsterdam. It was the winning concept of the tender the municipality of Amsterdam and the RAI Convention Centre issued for the location in the south of the city.
About the alliance
COD developed two hotels in Amsterdam in 2015, Motel One at the Europa Boulevard (320 rooms) and Generator (168 rooms) at the Mauritskade. The recent projects of the OMA agency include the new headquarters for G-Star in Amsterdam (2014) and the towers of The Rotterdam (2013). The NH Hotel Group will implement the nhow-label at ‘On-Air’ with 650 rooms hotel. Being Development is a young and innovative company that develops the sustainable real estate from the end user’s perspective.
On-Air
The On-Air hotel is designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas. It will include a restaurant, a TV studio, a spa / gym, shops and a sculpture garden. The sustainability ambition for the building will be ‘BREEAM outstanding’ and it will be carbon neutral. With 650 rooms nhow Amsterdam RAI will be the largest hotel of the Benelux. The start of the construction of this 91 meter high hotel is planned for midst 2016. The location is triangle bounded by the Europa Boulevard, the A10 and the Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre.
Prestigious landmark
The municipality of Amsterdam aims for a larger and more varied hotel offer and better spreading across the city. The new hotel and its facilities can be of great value to the city at this location on the south side of the city and the surrounding business district.
Newspaper menu comes alive
24-4-2015
Guests of Center Parcs restaurants can scan a newspaper menu with their phone for a virtual reality experience. With the use of an app guests can help foodservice Albron with further improvements, see extra information, receive advice about food or drinks that are connected to the current weather or vote on their favourite employee. The newspaper menu increases the level of experience in the Center Parcs restaurants where Albron takes care of the hospitality and food retail.
Newspaper menu
The newspaper menu offers access to the digital world. The technique that’s used, augmented reality, makes the print come to life. The stories of new hospitality concepts are filmed to excite the guests. The guests aren’t spectators of the decor where they eat and drink but they are a part of the story. This makes the experience of the restaurants complete.
Corine Holtmaat, manager of Albron says about the concept: ”People are flooded with information and read less in general. Footage is a good carrier to tell a story, to reach out to the viewer and take him away with you, that’s why this choice was made. Another benefit of the video is that you can excite multiple senses and can gain more impact in the communication. That’s how we touch people in the heart and create valuable moments and memories.”
Smart hospitality: BarDoggy unlocks ‘the Internet of Things’ for the hospitality industry
21-4-2015
BarDoggy creates an infrastructure for smart internet in catering establishments. The company places bluetooth sensors that are linked to the Internet (also called iBeacons) in restaurants and bars.
Bardoggy started with connecting the first five catering establishments with iBeacons on 1 March 2015 linking the catering business and the app. Meanwhile, more than 20 establishments have an active link with the Bluetooth sensors. Creator Tim de Kraker focuses on making smart hospitality concepts. After a conversation with an entrepreneur of a local bar Tim de Kraker thought that it would be enormously expensive to create an app for just one pub. Why not create one app for all the pubs which will add value to the user as well?
The app is launched for Android and iOS this year , and there already are a total of more than 50.000 downloads and 20.000 profile pages of entrepreneurs. With their business plan they were able to pick up € 350.000 for the development of their platform and the support of a community to use the services. The app is aimed at young people and now has 100.000 users.
Smart hospitality
BarDoggy makes hospitality smart and automates a part of the hospitality. There is a connection between all hospitality locations using one central platform to connect to the host. Users have one personal profile and only have to register once to be able to enjoy benefits at all internationally connected SmartBars. (A SmartBar is a hospitality venue with one or more sensors).
Once a user of the platform comes within 50 meters of a sensor, he is recognized and greeted by the hospitality venue with the possibility to offer nice advantages. The possibilities and interaction are numerous. The longer the guest uses the platform the more insight in his profiles is built. Insight on the number of times and duration of the visits and the type of hospitality venues frequented. There are connections established with other social media for acquaintances from other networks can easily find each other. It’s one of the most comprehensive entertainment platforms of Europe. With the app, young people in the target group of 18 to 30 of ages weekly find fun parties, score cheap drinks and will easily see where friends are within the connected SmartBars after the next update.
On 16 April, BarDoggy won a prestigious pitch contest organized by McKenzie Pitch Partners in New York, as best concept and pitch. The jury consisted of four global business leaders including the President Americas Global Corporate Payments of American Express and the Canadian CEO of FedEx. At present, there are ongoing discussions with investors for a new capital injection of 3 to 5 million to roll out BarDoggy. Spain, Portugal and America seem to get more concrete for international expansion.
Canned food in the hospitality industry
15-4-2015
Since the start of company Bommels Conserven they are convinced that canned food is tasty and trendy. That’s why they’ve launched the concept ‘Een nieuwe blik op de tafel’. (Freely translated as ‘You can clearly see the table’).
The concept is meant for the hospitality entrepreneurs who want to keep their guests entertained with products which are easy and simple to present at different times of the day.
Canned food
The canned fish will be served at the table. It’s a complete concept with a wooden cutting board that is the connecting tool to present the products which are: canned fish, bread and garnitures matching the recipes of the fish. This cutting board is specially designed to fit the canned fish exactly, the bread is presented and there’s space for bowls with different garnitures.
How does it work?
The guests can choose the cans from the menu. These will be served by the waiters and presented on the cutting board with the matching garnitures. Serve with homemade bread for more flavour.
For the launch of this concept, Bommels Conserven is still looking for entrepreneurs who would like to introduce it. Contact Dineke van Bommel for further information.
Hop Theory creates beer bags
14-4-2015
Hop Theory, beer enhancing sachets, is a new product that aims to enhance a regular beer with a sachet that works in a similar way as tea bags. The sachets are filled with a number of different ingredients like hops, fruit peels and coriander seeds, all natural flavors. The ‘beer bag’ enables you to customize your favorite beer.
Beer bags instead of tea bags
Hop Theory, has a patent pending for their beer infusion method. The sachet is a soilon woven mesh filter derived from corn starch, thus 100% biodegradable. The ingredients are sourced and manufactured within the U.S. Each ingredient is prepared in a certain manner (dried and/or ground) to improve flavor and the rate of dispersion. All ‘beer bags’ are wrapped individually to preserve their contents.
The company behind the idea of these beerbags, Hop Theory, is currently seeking funding at Kickstarter. They’re looking for 25.000 dollar and with still 25 days to go and more than half of the amount pledged, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Order your drinks through OpenTabs
10-4-2015
Guests of food court The World don’t have to wait to order their drinks anymore. They can order through their phones whenever they want to. The company eMove.me made this possible together with its German partner OpenTabs. They created the OpenTabs app and launched it in the Netherlands.
The World
On Wednesday 8 April The World officially opened its doors in Rotterdam. Guests can go there for the new dining concept by Wesley Ladage, son of the famous french-fries baker Bram Ladage. For this concept he works together with restaurants Asian Glories and O’Pazzo.
OpenTabs
You can order drinks from the espresso bar and wine bar of The World with your mobile phone. Each table in this section of The Word has a QR-code. This code can be scanned with the OpenTabs app and the menu appears on the screen. Make a choice and place your order. If you’ve paid, the restaurants promises to deliver the order within the five minutes.
Grab & Go
From half past seven in the morning, you can choose the ‘Grab & Go’ option. You can order for example a coffee and a sandwich and can pick it up when you want, without having to wait in a queue.
According to the CEO of eMove.me, Martijn Lukaart, this will be the future for the hospitality branch/industry and retail: ‘’The technology is becoming more sophisticated which, means we have the possibility to respond to your customer’s needs in a better way. This is not only convenient for the customer, who doesn’t have to wait any longer, but also for the entrepreneur.’’
