INNOVATIVE HOTEL DESINGS

The competition, organised by the UK’s leading architecture newspaper BD and Bdonline.co.uk, invited designers to develop a scheme that would make a tiny space (14sq m) feel generous and luxurious.
With budget accommodation accounting for over a third of the new hotels being built in the UK, the competition was a chance to shine a light on the lack of design innovation in these buildings.
The shortlisted designs range from colourful capsule pods that can travel around the country to minimalist square boxes with interactive screens instead of windows.
One predicts the needs of visitors by collecting information at check in and via social media, while another uses low-tech stage-set technology from the theatre to hide a sunken bath under a sliding bed.
“This is a sector that’s in desperate need of reinvention. Most budget hotel rooms are boring and purely functional spaces,” said BD editor-in-chief and competition judge Amanda Baillieu.
“The shortlisted entries are all very different but they share the same ambition – to create a really memorable experience.”
The shortlisted designs can all be seen on Bdonline.co.uk:
Nicos Yiatros &Konstantinos Zaverdinos- The Infinity Room has a floating bed to give the room a sense of airiness and light while floor-to-ceiling windows bring the city into the room and an overspill takes the room out to the city.
VW & BS – A Room as a View is the simplest hotel room possible, a blank canvas to be personalised by texture and local style constructed. 90% of the space is created using a common modular structure while the remaining 10% is left to local designer.
Ian Springford Architects – Myplace combines crowd sourcing with social media to create a system that allows guests to choose the place and time for the transportable hotel room. The pre fabricated pods can be stacked and transported on a flatbed truck.
Project Orange – PO Cabin is an extension of a prototype room for a hotel in Shoreditch with a concrete room and built-in bed constructed from reclaimed floorboards. Materials are purposely distressed and enhanced with quirky furnishings including a flight-case mini bar and a steamer trunk.
Bright Space Architects – Plugin and Play features two pods, one for sleeping and showering and one for ‘play’. The pods interlock to create flexible rooms and the interior of the ‘play’ pod is customisable via the online check-in system and social media.
Coupdeville Architects – The Configurator uses simple moving parts to create a series of different arrangements to make the most of the limited floor space. A sunken bath is covered by the sliding bed, designed along the lines of a stage set.
DeMatos Ryan- Make a Room removes all the usual walls that separate work, sleep, relax and wash spaces with wet and dry and soft and hard areas, and comfortable but durable materials.
G1 Architecture – A concept developed around three Es: elegance, experience and economy with a simple adaptable room that allows the visitor to change the layout to suit them.
Andrew Mulroy Architects – A minimal-width bathroom allows for a 2m-wide bed that can be used as a lounge area and an open floor space at the heart of the room.
Ninian McQueen- Reversing the trend of low-ceiling hotel rooms, the design proposes a small floor space and more generous headroom. A fold-out bed and wet screen can both be hidden away to create a bigger space.
CTHM – A prefabricated box made of an engineered wood with grooves for movable elements that allow visitors to move floor-to-ceiling curtains around and change the space as it suits them.
Michael Trentham Architects – Hotel Obscura deals with the idea of a windowless room by introducing large interactive screens showing real-time views of the visitor’s choice which can also be used to access the Internet and entertainment systems.
Source: www.hospitalitynet.org
HTEditor