Offering short-term accommodation to travelers, hotels represent one of the main elements supporting the hospitality sector. They often aim to create a serene environment, isolated from the bustle of city life, yet representative of the local identity. Boutique hotels represent a rising sub-sector of hospitality design. These are small hotels typically between 10 and 100 rooms with carefully chosen interior design, providing a memorable experience to their guests. From historic renovations to contemporary ground-up hotels, hotel projects represent a great opportunity for architects to create unique environments centered around leisure and relaxation.
This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. Located in the forests of Portugal, on the shore of the Greek island of Crete, or in the deserts of Egypt, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects respond to local conditions in order to create designs that cater to the needs of tourists and travelers.
Read on to discover 8 curated projects of hospitality facilities, along with their project descriptions from the architects.
Botanical Hotel: Adding Time to Time
The intervention covers Quinta do Viso, an extensive landscape and architectural structure contiguous to the Mata Nacional do Bussaco, the natural and cultural heritage candidate for classification by UNESCO, possessing outstanding biodiversity and environmental quality. With unique features in the Portuguese architectural panorama, it has become a landmark in the thermal village of Luso and a key element in the representation and perpetuation of this place. Its architecture is the result of Emídio Navarro’s wishes, who invited renowned artists and potters to form a special and original revivalist universe, markedly romantic, punctuated with a house, lake, greenhouse, and wine cellar and surrounded by woods, orchards and vineyards. Reconciling geographic and hydrographic values, the project triggers three larger environments corresponding to the hotel, the spa associated with the existing house and the restaurant.
Adaption of a 19th-Century Water Reservoir for a Spa Hotel
The 19th-century water reservoir of Karlovy Vary, which is now part of Czech technical heritage, will be adapted to serve as a hotel and spa since the city itself is a very popular spa resort, famous for its architecture and hot springs. The architecture is based strictly on protecting the heritage of the building. The new volume is elevated above the water reservoir to keep the character of the original architecture.
Harare Radisson Blu
The Harare Radisson Blu Hotel is located in the beautiful and luminous capital of Zimbabwe. With the ambitious vision of becoming a world-class city by 2025, Harare is one of the most important and evolving cities in Africa. Implanted between a stabilized Eastlea North and an Eastlea South dominated by the vegetation of the Chapman Golf Club, with a height of 65 meters, the hotel competes for the accelerated change in the landscape of Harare. Admittedly iconographic, the design evokes several references, such as the city’s history, its skyline, and surroundings. However, it was the astonishing Balancing Rocks that essentially influenced it.
Cappadocia Spa Hotel
Avanos is located in Cappadocia in central Türkiye in a region with traces of Hittite, Phrygian, Persian, Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman civilizations. An important political and religious center in the central Anatolian region with a history dating back at least 4000 years, Avanos appeared as a very rich and developed city in 18 AD in the Roman period. The natural beauties and cultural riches of Avanos and its surroundings have attracted the attention of historians and travelers for centuries. The geological structure of the region and especially the carved-rock settlements that have had constant human settlement throughout history make this area one of the most special places of Cappadocia.
Dispilio Luxury Pavilions
This luxurious pavilions - hotel picks up on all the aspects of its surroundings to offer a serene and harmonious year-round experience. Its elevated accommodations serve both as optimal viewing platforms toward the neighboring scenic lake as well as a homage to the nearby prehistoric settlement that inspired us. It features locally sourced materials and techniques and makes a significant effort to expand the local ecosystem.
Nubia Boutique Hotel
The hotel sits on a 2-level platform, stacking rooms and slightly rotating them, giving it this vernacular look. This arrangement allows for light and view to dominate in all areas as well as maintaining rooms privacy. It was made in respect to the context, with all natural sustainable materials. Encouraging mindful connection between body, soul and freedom to exist peacefully in nature. Basalts were kept in their original location. Meanwhile, red bricks along with wood and natural paint derived from soft mud to cover the walls.
Koia Infinity Resort
In an unspoiled natural Mediterranean landscape with a steep and rich relief with unrestricted sea views, we were invited to design a boutique hotel of 100 beds. The brief was the creation of a suite hotel for sophisticated guests, with private courtyards and pools. Nevertheless, ample public spaces have been designed to provide the choice for socialization. Our preoccupation was to preserve the beauty and serenity of the landscape. We decided to create a Greek village with low construction and integration of buildings into the environment. Our inspiration was the typical traditional stone construction of the Greek countryside, the so-called “xerolithia” (Xero + lithos = dry + stone). It used to be built by farmers on steep slopes to hold the ground and create flat surfaces for crops.
Boutique Hotel Hashtag 28
#28 is a self-catering boutique hotel that makes use of the smart hotel system, which allows the guests to get the advantage of using the building without the assistance of hotel staff. The elevated structure allows parking and services at the ground level. The first floor acts as the main space with a terrace on the roof level. Ramps and stairs lead the way up to the main spaces. The form of the building is derived to maximize the view while simultaneously embracing intimacy with nature.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.
