Take Your Time
TEAM: Anastasia Lekkou, Marisa Daouti – National Technical University of Athens, Scob Architects
An open-air sleeping experience.
The project suggests a step-back. It’s a step back from the hectic life of the city and a step back from the contemporary lifestyle of restrained social relations. That means that the space of sleep should be understood as an extended place of relaxation and reflection that differentiates from luxurious facilities and stuck-up hotel rooms. The idea is to bring back the act of sleeping outside as an opportunity to connect with the city, with the society and yourself. Inspired by Nietzsche’s “Denkraum”, the structure is a place where one can be alone among others, able to find social spaces and privacy inside a unified common space. The garden, the inner space of the pavilion represents the intimate and private, while the wooden deck is a common living space, where the social interaction takes place.
Once the guest has booked his/her place, he/ she can get a key to the “room” from the two pickup points, which gives access to the dormitories. The entrance is located on the ground floor, so that the traveller reaches the facilities directly from the city level. Firstly, he/she encounters the private bathroom and the stairs that lead to the sleeping area on the upper floor. There, each traveller is prompted to explore and experiment with the tools given by the design. A type of engagement with the structure is desired in this case, one that makes the user the immediate moderator of his/her personal space. This kind of self-involvement, the sense that you “build” your own shelter, is the key to achieve a connection between the user and architecture. In addition, because of the fact that each personal space isn’t defined by structural limits, but on the contrary, the limits are liquid, the temporary sense of territory, the one that makes us feel like home outside home, is achieved not by means of property or money exchange, but by the personal interaction with it. That is the reason why every unit consists of mechanically transformable elements.
The central part of every personal space is the bed, a big hammock that you choose when you book and hang yourself adapting the width and the height from four metal columns. The hammock can be sliced to the side liberating the space that is defined by the four metal columns, that along with two tall hanging semitransluscent curtains that form a corner shape, offers a three-sided visual isolation. A part of the wooden deck functions as a personal storage and relaxation space. Two underground storage boxes can be used to save luggage and personal items, and another one that is equipped with electrical plugins, can also be converted to a deck chair and a multi-use surface. Finally, a foldable waterproof sheet is located on top of the sleeping areas to protect from weather and the sun.