Sleep at height
TEAM: Bowie Chan, Bob Cheng – The University Of Hong Kong
Have you ever dreamed of a night floating in the sky? In this project, we propose an alternative hotel made over from the gondola, which is literally hanged in the sky upon the city.
The inspiration of the design comes from an element commonly found in modern skyscrapers – the building maintenance units (BMU).
Today, some of the tourists’ destinations are often known for the density of their urban environment. Taking metropolitans like Hong Kong, New York and Singapore as examples, among these cities, there are over 18000 high-rise buildings in total, over half of which have a BMU installed at the roof; the system is left idle when it is not used for window cleaning – its sole purpose.
Therefore, we propose that the BMU gondola to be modified into a new type of hotel, where the programs of building maintenance and sleep are merged in space and synergized in time. During the day, the cradle is used for window cleaning; and at night, the cradle is occupied as a hotel suite.
In a conventional hotel plan, individual suites with bed, bathroom and sitting room are clustered on each floor. Our proposal extracts sleeping as the essential programmatic element of the hotel, placing it in the space for the best experience, where other programs remain on the roof.
In the cradle-suite, one can enjoy the upper deck of the capsule as balcony; the lower deck as a bedroom with spectacular city view. Sleep-at-height is for the one who look for an exciting night high in the sky.