Hospitality Design - September 2013 - 86

perspectives

competition radical innovation
it is a unique work environment that promotes
collaboration between like-minded individuals.
It includes facilities and amenities that are rarely
seen in regular office buildings. And hotel owners
benefit from a new business model that maximizes
the hotel’s occupancy day and night, and thus,
increases the profitability of its services.”
Echoes judge Thornton: “I love the notion of
mixing locals with hotel visitors under one roof.”

Finalist: Nomad
3
4

Manhattan remains uninhabited—into
hospitality spaces. After four weeks, the
kit of parts will move to another location.
“Taking the typical U.S. pallet dimension,
everything in the new hotel—from lounge
furniture to bathrooms—will be designed
according to these dimensions and shipped
in color-coded boxes to the vacant office site.
(A typical truck can carry up to 36 of our
boxes; each box can potentially hold eight beds or
mattresses.) Due to the modularity of the designs,
each floor can be furnished differently and cater to
various levels of travelers from backpacking hostel
bunk bed setups to high-class suites. Various event
and amenity spaces can also occur throughout the
hotel based on the flexibility of the modules.”
It’s more than just a hotel to the designers.
“The Pop-Up Hotel is designed to be a means
of urban revitalization, an economic catalyst, as
well as an active community partner. It can be a
transformative experience for both the building
and more importantly, the hotel guests. For us, it is
extremely exciting to tackle an existing problem
in many major American cities, coupled with the
opportunity of tourism, and then transform the
existing infrastructure into to an unprecedented
hospitality experience.”

Runner Up: Convergence

Caroline Fraser, Luca Valentini, and Flora
Olivieri also wanted to utilize office space for
hospitality, but their concept, Convergence, houses
guestrooms and in-use shared office space under
a single roof, maximizing interactions between
guests and locals by merging their leisure, social,
and business needs and removing the barriers of

086

September 2013 hospitalitydesign.com

3+4. At Convergence,
business and leisure
merge in the rooftop
terrace and coffee bar.

Jihyoon Yoon and Saeyoung Yoon take pod
hotels to another level with Nomad. The idea is
based upon a train model, where guests are able
to bring their hotel suites—which appropriately
resemble modularized train units—with them
from city to city. The movable suites are docked in
a cell structure in local train stations (like parking
garages), which have space for long-term or
temporary stays. These stations have permanent
amenities and serve as hubs for shopping,
dining, and local activities. When moving to
the next city, the suite is carried by the rail
circulation system. hd

5+6. Guests of Nomad
travel from city to city
in portable suites that
resemble train units.

usual functional spaces. The design is meant to
be a natural respite in the city, featuring a “green
nest” made of plants, trees, and daylight, and white
accents combined with materials such as cement
and wood. Amenity highlights include a coffee
bar; a multimedia bookstore; a winter garden;
co-working space, designed to facilitate internal
collaboration; a gym; and a rooftop terrace. And
technology is key: a social network facilitates realtime and in-person connections.
As the designers say: “For the guests,
Convergence is a new way of connecting with
worldly locals without leaving the hotel. They also
experience a hotel that does not feel ‘empty’ in
the middle of the day. Moreover, they do not have
to worry about the availability of state-of-the-art
business and communication technologies inside
the hotel. For the workers based at Convergence,

5
6
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - September 2013
