Competition to create your own vision: What is a Hotel

Competition to create your own vision: What is a Hotel

This is an idea competition where the participants are free to create their own vision for a hotel that could be manifested in the form of architecture, art, system, poetry, product etc.

The participants are free to re-interpret the idea of a ‘hotel’ w.r.t to its program, function, architecture wherein the scale of intervention, functional program, specifications, dimensions and site are not given and they can be arranged by the participants to better suit their proposal. By its dictionary definition, a hotel is ‘an establishment providing accommodation, meals, and other services for travellers and tourists.’ This is a basic idea and perception of what a hotel is at the present. However, the competition encourages participants to debate the course of hospitality in the future or as we can put it, ‘WHAT CAN A HOTEL BE ?

There have been many innovations in the recent past that have widened the horizons of the hotel typology. Where the hotels are becoming more and more well equipped self sustaining units that can provide a wholesome experience to the users, there have been radical innovations like airbnb which have reduced hotels to mere commodities against their sharing models. They have changed the idea of a traditional hotel room and are even offering castles and houseboats as places for stay. These maverick innovations have pushed us to ask some serious questions on the essence of a hotel typology that can help the participants frame their narrative.

•A hotel is a place where you stay temporarily. If the stay is temporary, should the hotel be permanent ? Can there be any such thing as a pop-up hotel or temporary pavilion-like hotels ?

•Does a hotel need to have a designated building ? Or can we propose any kind of habitable sleeping space as a ‘hotel’ ? Can it be a ‘network of rooms’ scattered around a place ? Can it be reduced to the size of an object, like say a bed ? Can it be a big, comfortable vehicle?

•The function of a hotel has become very elaborate with time. It is a whole unit in itself that can provide you a variety of experiences. So are they in a way hindering the experience of the context and the environment they are located in ? Should a hotel be a bare minimum part of the contextual experience or a different experience in itself ? How should a context influence the hotel ?

•Can a hotel not be organized as a conventional rooms around a walking aisle. Should sleeping be a private activity ? Should it be restricted to the standard version of a room ? Can sleeping happen in a common space ? Can there be different types of sleeping spaces at the disposal of users based on their resting needs during the day ?

•Can the notion of duration of a stay in the hotel be further shortened. Can there be an exclusive hotel space for an afternoon siesta ?

•Should a hotel have to be rented ? Can people exchange sleeping spaces ? Can barter be a vector to get access to a hotel space ?The competition encourages participants to develop original scenarios for their interpretation of a hotel.

They are free to choose their context, program and scale of intervention. We are not searching for any profound technical detailing, but some original, creative and risky architectonic conceptualizations