Three concepts have been shortlisted as finalists for the 2018 Radical Innovation Award, a hospitality design award that calls for the “best and brightest” concept ideas.

Italian practice Network of Architecture (noa*) have been shortlisted for their striking concept – a hotel designed especially for single or separated parents and their children.

With a proposed location in Sirmione, on the south coast of Lake Garda, Le Colline Incantate (the Enchanted Hills project) is described as a “specifically designed hotel to meet the physical and psychological needs” of divided families, “with comfortable and enticing zones for all ages, professional staff and carers and protected spaces.”

Conceived as a vertical garden, the design sees the building merge with the rolling landscape. Grass, flowers, shrubs and trees will overgrow the main structure and blend with the architecture, while water features will unify it with an adjacent artificial lake. According to noa*, due to the blanket of plants and water there will be no need for thermal insulation.

Facilities will include specific rooms for hosting individual sessions and group experiences for parents, their children and therapists.

Of the project, the studio said: “The social aspect of this project is of great importance. Marriage rates are declining, divorce rates are rising. Nearly 15 per cent of children living in OECD countries live in single households. Failed relationships leave children struggling to adapt to the new situations they have to confront.

“New family constellations call for new housing forms. The retreat is specifically aimed to create a place of security and tranquillity within its hills. We worked alongside psychologist Dr. Paul Hofer to develop a programme with several therapeutic proposals.”

Varinot & Varinot Architectes have also been shortlisted for their Aquaponic Experience Hotel. The concept integrates an aquaponic system for a “fully self-sufficient experience”.

Aquaponics is a symbiotic system of aquaculture whereby the waste produced by farmed fish supplies nutrients for plants in the system grown hydroponically. The plants then purify the water, creating a fully rounded sustainability process.

Varinot & Varinot created the hotel to mirror this. Rainwater is continuously recycled throughout the hotel so that the ecosystem reduces water consumption and produces it in efficient quantities.

A third leisure concept to be shortlisted was the Autonomous Travel Suite, which “integrates transportation and hospitality through a driverless, mobile suite offering door-to-door transportation service in between a traveler’s home and destination”.

Part rental car and part hotel room, The Autonomous Travel Suite is “equipped with basic sleeping, working and washroom functions, allowing guests to be most efficient and productive while optimizing travel time”.

Once scheduled online or via mobile app, the traveler receives a customised unit at their door, which is taken to a local Autonomous Hotel docking facility at the traveler’s destination, where the unit extends into a larger parent suite.