3-FINALISTS Archives - Non Architecture Competitions

TEAM: Eleonora Moi, Marco Cannas – University of Cagliari School of Engineering and Architecture

“The RestArt Centre” is not the usual hotel: it is something different, where sleeping – such a usual activity – becomes something outside the box. This project is born from the idea that some people would like to have a rest during various moments of the day, for example during their lunch break – a dream often hard to realise owing to the distance between their home and their workplace. For this reason, “The RestArt Centre” aims to offer its costumers a break from a chaotic city and a stressful timetable, providing them a private place where to relax and to rest before they restart working. Inside the building, in fact, there are some particular “sleeping points” which can be rent for a short period of time.

The centre works as a common Internet café, providing a bed and some rest instead of a computer and Internet access. The users pay a cheap fee according to the time of use of the cabin and they also have access to some other facilities before restarting their daily activities (such as having a coffee or a snack in the bar inside the building or using the clean and spacious toilets of the centre). In this way, everyone can have a peaceful and relaxing hour or less to get some rest and restart the day.

The building is developed in one single floor, which is divided in two areas: the “quiet area” with seven different “sleeping points” and the reception area (which includes the hall, toilets for the users and a small bar with its related store room). The two areas differ in their height from the ground (the “quiet area” is 50 cm higher than the other one) and they are entirely designed for all costumers.

The “sleeping points” are built in wood, steel and glass, with non-continuous walls, which allow the users to have a constant circulation of air, and, at the same time, they ensure the costumer’s privacy.

The cabin has been conceived to be an object of design, joining aesthetic and utility. The “C form” looks cosy for the user, and at the same time it has a perfect recess where to collocate the bed. Even the lower area of the bed generates a useful space where to put cumbersome objects, so that the space at disposal appears to be bigger.

The exterior of the pavilion is soundproof, in order to isolate the inside from the chaos of traffic, and it is built with wood, glass and steel, such as the “sleeping points”; the front is designed with the same shape of the cabins and it is characterised by a long horizontal development.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

2000 Star Rated Hotel

TEAM: Tina Fox – Tina Fox Design

Converting an existing building into a star gazing sleeping experience

Since the late 20th Century the quality of hotel accommodation and service has been defined by star ratings developed by various international and national organizations. A one star rating would generally indicate budget accommodation with basic facilities, whereas a five star rating would indicate luxurious facilities with outstanding customer service and attention to detail.

The rating systems consider a range of standard requirements that encourage the development of standardised hotel and room designs. Hotels turn into lists of facilities that can be easily quantified and compared.

However, the unquantifiable experience of being and sleeping in a hotel is more complex than simplified statistics.

Research reveals that it is possible to see around 2000 stars with the naked eye at any one time. The 2000 Star Rated Hotel relies on real stars to provide a unique sleeping experience and environment.

Any suitable building can be converted into a 2000 Star Rated Hotel with the introduction of cloud sleeping pods. These pods are steel monocoque forms, covered in an internally illuminated foam skin that makes them appear like softly glowing clouds. They are suspended from the ceiling structure of the existing building with suspension cables. Each pod has a glazed porthole positioned over the head of the bed providing direct star gazing opportunity. A telescopic tube is used to connect the porthole to a pre-made hole in the existing roof structure.

The cloud pods are accessed by illuminated metal spiral staircases from the ground level of the building where the main hotel facilities are all located, such as the sign in area, toilets, cinema, library, café, lockers and common areas.

The cloud pod interior is designed to be a comforting home from home with an internal envelope formed from crochet blankets and housing an integrated bed, storage system and night light.

The 2000 Star Rated Hotel can be retrofitted into any suitable existing large building such as a church, shopping centre, train station, warehouse or aircraft hangar. The potential locations are endless and omit the emphasis on heroic brand architecture.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

The Grid

TEAM: Zi Yi Chua – zlgdesign

The Grid, an unconventional yet innovative hotel emerges as a reinterpretation toward typical hotel configuration. The project is seek to embrace a space of connectivity and exploration rather than just a solitary place to hold for habitation. It is meant to be a platform of information richness; like a network for congregation, interaction and exchange of idea.

The concept begin with the thought to break out from the shackle of conventional realm where centralise core set as the only efficient perimeter to transfer circulation throughout a building. What if all the access cores are spread throughout a spatial volume? By revoluting the conventional idea of vertical transfer for circulation, the idea of diversifying the transfer into vertical and horizontal throughout the permissible route for a free-form spatial transition.

Unlike typical hotel formation, there is no literal enclosure for The Grid. It is opened in all directions through the network-like grid framework toward its context which envisage the pure spatial transition between exterior and interior; encourage visitor to explore and discover its context. It is projected ambitiously as a three-dimensional open space where the overlapping activities are being performed by an archipelago of sleeping units and public spaces throughout the network atmosphere.

Since The Grid is possessed with spatial diversification, typical partitioned hotel rooms are replaced by hover pods which allow dynamic and flexible movement within the grid framework efficiently. The flexibility of The Grid allows its tenants to check-in through digital kiosks or shift and check their pods location throughout the framework with provided application on their mobile devices once they have completed their check-in.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

SLEAP

TEAM: Nikos Michelis

Sleap is a leap towards the next level of our narcissist society. Many people of our generation are willing to trade their dignity to maintain the illusion that they are popular online. Sleap combines that desire with the perversion of people who enjoy to watch others. This platform benefits both sides.

The user can sleep free from exposing his privacy and the viewers will of surveillance can be fulfilled anytime. People want to rent a bed for the minimum possible wage, when they travel. The most important things are the experiences from their trips. Sleap is making their dream come true, to collect even more time from their experiences and to rent a bed in the minimum price possible.

Depending on their view count users can even get paid from their streaming. The architecture of this project is not important. As Rem Koolhaas said in his interview back in 1996 from Wired magazine that “People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course, that’s both liberating and alarming.” The design of the sleap room is indifferent, the only important ingredient to create one is the existence of a bed and a camera and of course a user.

Nowadays the significance of the digital world is even bigger than the real one for some people. The access to the digital world is only available through the proper equipment. The equipment is significant against the architectural elements of a house. That is visible in the project “A home is not a house” from Reyner Banham back in 1965, where his project shows clearly that the only necessary boundary from the exterior environment is a thin membrane. The focus of its inhabitants is on the center of the house, where the electronic equipment is located. It might be possible that the discipline of architecture is in crisis. Instead of designing buildings, a lot of architects are pursuing careers in different fields like ux and ui design, product design, game development, fashion design etc.

Although architecture has believers, like a religion. But the believers need a guide, who in our case is the architect. As Frank Lloyd Wright once said “The architect must be a prophet… a prophet in the true sense of the term… if he can’t see at least ten years ahead don’t call him an architect.” So architect, make your prophecy or go to sleep.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

Destination Sleep

TEAM: Melissa Soh, Serena Pangestu – University of Western Australia

The Sleeping Train: repurposing underutilised spaces

In many cities trains are a widely used form of transport that become less frequent and stop running past midnight, leaving the empty train waiting until the next morning. We propose to transform these trains into a place to sleep for travellers. To board the train travellers will buy a Sleeping Ticket on a smartphone app where they can find which destinations are available, the capacity, and the time schedule the train picks them up and drop them off. This low cost accommodation model adds diversity to the existing hotel typologies available in most inner city locations.

At night time the Sleeping Train will pick up the travellers from their desired train station where they will transform the seats into beds by sliding them across to join. The cushion folds down to provide a larger and clean sleeping area. Pulling up panels hidden in the backrest forms individual compartments that creates privacy and a sense of security. Throughout the evening a receptionist is stationed in the locomotive that will manage the hotel. The next morning the Sleeping Train drops the passengers off at their desired train station giving the travellers flexible locations at affordable rates. They store their belongings in the lockers provided at the train station and begin their day exploring the city. The train then transforms back to its usual form and continues to function as per usual.

This model uses existing train networks within a single city that can be adapted to all different places, train timetables and infrastructure. As our cities are expanding at an unprecedented rate, spaces within cities are becoming more and more valuable. With our rapidly increasing digitalised world, the Sleeping Train allows travellers to take advantage of good locations with the single touch on a smartphone.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

Dreaming on water

TEAM: Luka Bader, Mariona Massons – ETSAB

The human being has colonized most of the land, however; the sea remains untouched. Rethinking the idea of the conventional hotel, our proposal aims to place it on the water and provide an escape from the civilization, as we know it nowadays.

The room covers all necessities; it can be independent and could be moved from one place to another, it has a fully equipped bathroom and a bed with views both on the water and sky. By sitting on the water, the kind of relaxation you get when rocked by the waves is achieved. A deck circles the room and allows visual connection to the surroundings and the sky.

We envision a self-suficient pod that takes advantage of currents and sunrays in order to generate energy. We combine current powered tentacles, tidal powered turbines and solar panels.

Booking a hotel room does not have to be boring, it can be a magical experience where you fall asleep to the sound of the waves while looking at the stars, but from the comfort of your bed.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

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.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

UBOX

TEAM: Simone Costa

An unprecedented sleeping opportunity in the unusual city space

U_Box is a collection of three independent inhabitable booths, modulated in size and di erentiated in services in order to t the basic function of sleeping, no matter the target, location or ownership. The concept attempts to de ne a series of generic objects, which only purpose is to serve as enclosed, secured place where the individual(s) is enabled to rest: minimum di erentiations or implementations are intended to customize the starting box according to the desired target group/number of guests, plethora of the user’s necessities ful lled within the booth, or even the aesthetics of the box itself.

U_Box, in its three distinguished modules, allows to host the young independent traveller looking for just a shelter to spend the night, as the visiting tourist needing a room after their daily exploration, the itinerant couple on the way towards their destination, the fresh newcomer waiting for a more perma- nent accommodation. The procedure is simple: the generic box could be programmed for short stays (1 night) or longer periods (up to the week) and be accessible with a mobile app that interacts with the U_box smart-lock. No reservation, no bookings are required, as the potential users can approach the Box with their smart device in order to access it and inhabit it whenever they feel the need. The external illumination emphasizes the structure availability to host, turning its outdoor lights o once occupied by users or while undergoing maintenance: a logic intended to interpret the suggestion of an urban lighthouse, as a beacon to guide the traveller towards a place where to feel safe and sleep. Beside the lights, the booth external covering plays a role in highlighting the durability of the allowed permanence within the encountered box: the basic unit stands for short stays; the external steel frame covered with fabric points out the possibility to use the structure for more days, providing an aesthetic di erentiation and a clear, immediate communication with the users.

U_Box is conceived, as mentioned, to be a generic object. It consists in a simple wooden booth covered with white, semitranpsparent plastic panels. With its neutrality, it could t a public square, a passage, a park, a private garden or a building roof. An initiative aimed to deliver unconventional room in unprecendented city places, as result of a public initiative or as the opportunity for a private to establish in its estate an extra but independent space for common guests or detached Airbnb and any couchsur ng initiatives. It is meant to be an instrument as much valuable for the institution as for the individual: the rst o ering an organized system of certi ed, public accommodations, the second as constitutive part of a widespread, porous network of private hospitality.

U_Box is a new way to conceive the hosting in the city and beyond the city. It’s the dynamic, sur- prising alternative against the outdated, expensive notion of hotel. It’s the innovative solution for everybody.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

Hotent

TEAM: Andreea Cutieru, Alexandru Arama, Cristina Costea, Andreea Ionescu, Nicoara Stoenescu – University of Architecture And Urbanism “Ion Mincu”

Hotel+Tent ‐ A suitcase for a nomad traveler ABOUT

Not quite a hotel, nor a tent, but something in between: an expandable suitcase you can place anywhere you like. Imagine you want to travel the world, but you don’t want to give up the safety and comfort of a hotel, nor to sacrifice the freedom of placement the tent provides and the experience of sleeping underneath a starry sky. Hotent is a lightweight, foldable container‐like structure which grants the tourist the advantages of a hotel and a tent in the same room, while providing him with a unique travel experience.

HOW TO BOOK?

It’s like embarking on a trip with only a chalk and a pillow. You define your space just like drawing a circle on the pavement and we bring “the pillow”. All you need to do is go online 24h prior your arrival and choose an eligible spot on your destination city’s map. After online payment, you will receive a code, which enables you to open your room. The expandable suitcase will be waiting for you at the place desired.

HOW IT WORKS?

The suitcase is made of sliding boxes which expand to create a room with a bathroom, a bed and a desk with chair. It is transported by a crane car and mounted onto its legs. By pulling the metal legs according to the online instructions, you will be able to unfold the room. To create the maximum hight of the room, just pull the straps underneath to lower the bottom boxes. After your departure, the room is shrinked back to its “suitcase” size and removed as if never there. We offer a safe room, on top of the ground, that leaves the space below for social and public activities. The height also benefits a better view.

HOW IS MADE?

The boxes are made of metal cladded sandwich panels with rubber seals for airtightness. The goal was to create a light‐weight room held by four metal telescopic legs, which would ensure safety and intimacy. The traveler can access the room using a metal ladder mounted on the entrance door panel. The stair is released by an electronic, internet connected device which is activated using the access code. All the furniture is foldable onto the walls. Electricity and hot water are provided by a photovoltaic panel on top of the bathroom unit box, while running water for 2 days use is stored in a tank mounted on the bathroom unit upper box.

WHO IT ADRESSES?

Hotent adresses the nomad, the wanderer who wants to experience the city rhythm in an unconventional manner, enjoying the unpredictable, the ephemeral. The project is about bringing adventure and comfort together, as well as actively implicate the traveler in the placing and making of his sleeping space.

May 13, 2016October 14, 2019

Bath-Hotel