BELONG
TEAM: Lauro Eduardo Franzé Filho, Anita Carson Urbano, Jorge Lira e Gazel, Igor Dantas – Universidade Julio de Mesquita Filho UNESP
BE ANYWHERE, SLEEP EVERYWHERE
Perhaps this is the most appropriate word to describe the idea behind this project.
When we go to a new city, we may enjoy it`s attractions, but in a certain way we do not belong to it. We face obstacles everywhere, all the time. It is always hard to find the services we need, the right places to go, stay or eat. However, there is one place that tries to gather all this services, the hotel. It receives and treats you in a way you fell part of that place. It might be a cozy hotel that resembles your home, or something luxurious. It might offer you one thousand different services, or just be a place to sleep well.
This project is a part of an interesting idea: What if we could enjoy this kind of feeling not just in this specific place, but in the whole city? What if the city itself were a big and comfortable hotel? It is a fact that technology increased the number of service providers, such as taxi services or living services, like Uber and Airbnb. But all this apps are very specific, offering just one kind of service. It is right there that Belong comes.
It is a digital platform that enables regular people to offer hotel’s services. Thus, all the Belong users will be able to access these services not just in one place, but spread around the city. It starts with simple things, such as someone who wants to make extra money and decides to offer a bathroom that is not being used in their house. And it goes to more complex ideas, such as places to eat, exercise or sleep. Here, the idea of sleeping is not restricted to an act neither to a place.
The access to the platform would be through an app or a website. It would find for you, using a GPS, people offering all kinds of service, such as an appropriate place for a work meeting, or a nice and exclusive place to have breakfast. The best part is that money would be
unnecessary because all the payments would be done through the platform. The entire city is now your hotel.
This project represents no just the idea itself, but all the potentiality it has, revealing all the nonarchitecture behind it. These potentialities will create unprecedented freedom, which will change the way we communicate to cities dramatically. Now we belong to the city and the city belongs to us, being all the services connected to a single virtual space but spread across infinite physical spaces.
This is Belong, the idea of being anywhere, and sleeping everywhere.