VisitScotland Quality & Standards set a challenge for third year Interior Design students at Glasgow School of Art: to create three and five star hotels with an innovative vision of the traditional and contemporary diversity of Scottish culture. Quality advisers from VisitScotland collaborated with students to develop individual briefs and ensure accommodation standards.
There were two sites, a nine storey 1970’s block on the banks of the Clyde in Glasgow and a converted and extended Victorian villa in Inverary.
Lorna Mangon from Beverley (East Yorkshire) was the student behind the VisitScotland Quality Assurance team’s selected design. Capturing the essence of Glasgow's culture, Lorna included aspects of iconic Glaswegian design in her work and was inspired by the urban scene she has experienced while studying in the city. She explains:
"I wanted to design a hotel that would reflect the rawness of Glasgow and it's arty culture and architecture, something that was unpretentious and quirky. The idea was to create a different hotel experience that the guests would remember when visiting Glasgow. The design concept can only be described as 'rough-luxe', a combination of raw materials and unique found objects, ephemera and memorabilia sourced from the city."
Lorna won a nights stay at Hotel Missoni Edinburgh.