Room Mate Container | Teresa Sapey + Partners

The main challenge encountered when designing a hotel lies in the difficulty of creating a comfortable and welcoming space. Furthermore, this comes across strongly, when we take into account that this specific space is not utilized for more than a few hours. Moreover, nowadays, we expect much more from a hotel: not only the basics must be guaranteed, but also an emotional connection which makes us “feel at home” is required.

Indeed, in the past decades, a tendency towards giving for granted as much as realistically establishing a relationship and a balanced interaction between functionality and design, has been taking over the hospitality scenario – among others. However, when it comes to discussing and developing a hotel in a 15 square-meter container, is this duality actually feasible? Surely, what is clear is that this project could not been approached from a conventional point of view. As a matter of fact, as once upon a time a great genius said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

In a conventional hotel, clients move from one point to another, accordingly to what they feel like doing... Therefore, why not turn around this concept? Why don’t we make the hotel change in relation to the needs of its costumers? Consequently, the solution to the difficulties encountered when dealing with such a tiny
space can be easily understood by observing Rubik’s cube. Here, in fact, the various modules spin around a central axis in order to obtain various colored faces. Therefore, the modules are assembled accordingly to the customers’ needs, independently or collectively, and, hence, they are able to accommodate multiple rooms in just a few square meters.

The access is not a conventional one, nor it is framed by a door, but rather a large panel of apples is set to unveil a hallway which leads into the central module: a neutral space. Once inside it, the various integrated functions that dress-up the neutral space are found andestablished through the integration of easily removable modules that need to be configured accordingly: a reception, a master bedroom and dressing room, a dining room, a bathroom, a bar and, finally, a gym and a resting area. The central space which, as mentioned, is neutral, comprises of warm and comfortable wood panels whilst the mobile modules, following Rubik’s cube mechanics, are identifiable through their color which, in fact, has been consciously assigned to them by bearing in mind their function. Therefore, the chosen colors are not random, but rather they have been specifically chosen in order to provoke a specific emotion and/or feeling related to its corresponding environment. For instance, the fluorine red of the gym is meant to provide energy and strength, whilst the bedroom, characterized by dark blue tonalities, seeks to convey a sense of tranquility to its host.

In conclusion, such space is endowed with soul and personality, surprise and color. It is an “empathic space” constantly connected and related to the host’s psyche and feelings: a place where one stops being a stranger and where, at least for a few hours, one feels at home.