2005-12-10hotel
| By Yaz @ 00:00 | [ read ] |
Cyril Fiévet writes for InternetActu #95 an article on technology and hotels: Les hôtels, creuset de l’innovation technologique ? I read it with much attention as I cannot agree more… I quote, “L’hôtel n’est-il pas, par essence, le symbole du lieu nomade, dans un monde de plus en plus dominé par la dynamique de mobilité, celle de la connexion permanente (avec ou sans fil), ou celle d’appareils divers, partie intégrante de notre environnement personnel ? Et qu’en sera-t-il dans le futur ?”
For sure, this is another sign that I have to finish—FI-NI-SH—my thesis on the neo-nomad, and the spatial impact of mobility. I am currently writing about the trans-disciplinary method undertaken to study ‘mobilities’, and this by putting together the material collected so far, bits of interviews, and experiments… Still... I could not help myself but—stop—and look back at the material I had already collected on hotels… so as to feed the two long term projects that are cooking in the kitchen. The receipts of these projects will stay secret until further advancement in sponsor search… Anyway, here are few ingredients:
“Synthetic (and sometimes toxic) interiors of typical lodgings scattered in polluted landscapes characterize today’s throw-away environment.” This is how Steven Holl, architect, described his experience when staying at a Hotel in the Midwest, USA. [1] In fact, Standardization may ruin a sense of uniqueness, or at least an illusive sense of home that a traveler is looking for when having to frequently move from hotel room to hotel room! Yet it seems, there is a growing importance of hotel chains.[2]
However, the Hotel Puerta América in Madrid, conceptualized as an “urban refuge which inspires our senses” is a delight for us designers! “Prestigious architects and designers” have designed a hotel that stands more like a ‘permanent’ contemporary architecture exhibit. For example while the architect Zaha Hadid explores a design that “Pushes the manufacturing possibilities”, integrating furniture to the continuous surface (the design successor of the Dymaxion’s bathroom of Buckminster Fuller (1936) and the ‘House of the Future’ (1956) of Alison + Peter Smithon) for designing the first floor, Kathryn Findlay conceives the eighth floor for individuals to “Enjoy their own unconsciousness”... Yet the designs for such a hotel are rather fix, and do not take into account the changing needs of the various users in transit.
Another experiment, the Project Fox undertaken in Denmark in April 2005 plays as a marketing tool for the car, the Volkswagen Fox, “The maximum vehicle for the minimum money”, and is linking road and hotel in a singular manner!
I have yet to tell you about the integration of technology in the hotel room…
MORE is coming soon... :)
[1] Steven Holl, Parallax (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000)
[2] Frank M. Go and Ray Pine, Globalization Strategy in the hotel Industry (London: Routledge, 1995)
For sure, this is another sign that I have to finish—FI-NI-SH—my thesis on the neo-nomad, and the spatial impact of mobility. I am currently writing about the trans-disciplinary method undertaken to study ‘mobilities’, and this by putting together the material collected so far, bits of interviews, and experiments… Still... I could not help myself but—stop—and look back at the material I had already collected on hotels… so as to feed the two long term projects that are cooking in the kitchen. The receipts of these projects will stay secret until further advancement in sponsor search… Anyway, here are few ingredients:
“Synthetic (and sometimes toxic) interiors of typical lodgings scattered in polluted landscapes characterize today’s throw-away environment.” This is how Steven Holl, architect, described his experience when staying at a Hotel in the Midwest, USA. [1] In fact, Standardization may ruin a sense of uniqueness, or at least an illusive sense of home that a traveler is looking for when having to frequently move from hotel room to hotel room! Yet it seems, there is a growing importance of hotel chains.[2]
However, the Hotel Puerta América in Madrid, conceptualized as an “urban refuge which inspires our senses” is a delight for us designers! “Prestigious architects and designers” have designed a hotel that stands more like a ‘permanent’ contemporary architecture exhibit. For example while the architect Zaha Hadid explores a design that “Pushes the manufacturing possibilities”, integrating furniture to the continuous surface (the design successor of the Dymaxion’s bathroom of Buckminster Fuller (1936) and the ‘House of the Future’ (1956) of Alison + Peter Smithon) for designing the first floor, Kathryn Findlay conceives the eighth floor for individuals to “Enjoy their own unconsciousness”... Yet the designs for such a hotel are rather fix, and do not take into account the changing needs of the various users in transit.
Another experiment, the Project Fox undertaken in Denmark in April 2005 plays as a marketing tool for the car, the Volkswagen Fox, “The maximum vehicle for the minimum money”, and is linking road and hotel in a singular manner!
I have yet to tell you about the integration of technology in the hotel room…
MORE is coming soon... :)
[1] Steven Holl, Parallax (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000)
[2] Frank M. Go and Ray Pine, Globalization Strategy in the hotel Industry (London: Routledge, 1995)
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