MOTIVE Hotels in their majority, regardless of the features they provide, have adopted a stable ‘type’ room by setting activities strictly in specific positions. This room type doesn’t leave much of a choice on their user. In a hotel room, the space one would sleep, study, discuss or sit is clearly defined. The options are set in advance on behalf of the user. His particular needs are skipped and he has to adapt to a given area with doubtful results.
OBJECTIVE When space is not addressed to specific users, but needs vary and they can’t all be predicted in advance, comes of the need for a design approach more flexible which will give space to user to take action. The concept of spatial flexibility, as considered here, refers to the ability of a space to interact with its user in a relationship of mutual dependency and configuration. Spatial flexibility interests this proposal precisely because it encompasses a wider meaning than that of change` that of choice. Flexibility in a set of spatial entities, as in this case inside a hotel room, can be achieved without the change of forms or structures that compose it while continues to meet the different needs of each user. This doesn’t negate the ability of the whole to change in order to satisfy different needs, nor contributes to increase the degree of flexibility. However, it doesn’t make users’ changes necessary and doesn’t keep anything hidden from them. In this case we can say that we are talking about a flexible set and not just for a variable one, which through this ability gives us more options. The aim of such architecture is that the strong identity of the space will affect the user, while he gives a different meaning to his environment through the use and his personality. In such architecture, the identity of both, not only isn’t lost, but it is enhanced to the maximum extent.
PROPOSAL – DESCRIPTION According to this objective, this approach is considered rather as an “experimental” one. The proposed configuration aims to motivate the users to affect space where possible, to use it differently from the way it was designed. In this direction, the space is fragmented into smaller parts, in all its three dimensions, to create sub-spaces, while maintaining continuity. There are constructed levels based on human scale, multiples of twenty centimeters as the smallest dimension, which, either alone or multiplied can produce “useful” levels, by one step and a shelf to a desk or a seat. Thus, subspaces with suitable dimensions are formed, both in order to satisfy as many needs as possible and the appropriation of space by as many users as possible. Precisely because of this flexibility option, the room invites users to explore spatial possibilities and give its forms meaning (hence to the functions) through personal choice, which contradicts a commonly prescribed spatial condition for them.
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ΔΟΜΕΣ magazine
the design of a typical hotel room
What is emphasized through this process is the importance of user’s involvement in the signification of personal space. Important as be the biological needs, equally important is the user’s expression in space. Furthermore, with this approach there are simultaneously achieved spatial flexibility and the ability to change over time. design team | E. Charalampopoulou , T. Thanou