In Process: Stefan Steil Tell us about the major hotel project you completed as part of your MFA Design Studio II course. Design Studio II focuses on one large project: a hotel with nine stories. We were given the floor plan and the program—all the requirements we must meet for our design, space-wise: the lobby, the restaurant, the tea room, spa, hotel rooms, and also private residences. The professor, Edwin Zawadski, is very conceptually driven. Usually, in classes, there’s a balance of concept, space planning, and finishes and materials, but his approach—so far out there, intellectual—was really a challenge for me, and I was excited about that. My idea was designing a hotel for a ‘global nomad’—which I think of as a person, or a group of people, who travel the world; they are fairly wealthy, they attend the same events (art openings, movie events, trade shows); the hotel would be a destination for them. They need to meet each other in places all over the world. I also refused to design a typical hotel room and tried to reinvent it by stripping it of any unnecessary clutter. My instructor asked me, “How could you connect these people on a three-dimensional level? And how can you respond to the fact that our culture is becoming more and more visually focused?” So I started sketching, and all of a sudden I had this idea of incorporating virtual reality into my project to connect all these people on different levels. So, for example, somebody could be in this hotel franchise in Sydney, Australia, but could interact with someone in the same hotel in NYC. I created the idea of slabs cutting vertically through the building (through the public and private spaces—the tea room, the hotel rooms, the restaurant) to enforce the sense of simultaneity. The slabs are actually made up of large screens, which function as outlets to the world. It’s almost like Facebook—but on a larger scale. A network you could belong to that would open up your private realm to all these other members. You could interact…you could leave a message. I also set it into the future, because I don’t think the technology is available yet.
“It was also clearly about thinking outside the box.”
As far as materials go, I chose an almost blank approach: plain stainless steel; mirrored surfaces; concrete—all to reinforce the futuristic aspect. The empty, serene interiors are supposed to provide a backdrop in this climate of excess. In a way, I think that the professor actually tried to prepare students for the real world with this project. So that you are able to back up your ideas and concepts, whatever your design, for a client. student profiles
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