Eighteen hotels · four sections
What the building puts in front of you
Every building puts something directly in front of you. We say what it is, and why it could not be anything else.
A salt wall, a rock face, a sealed capsule front, a glass dome, a corridor with no window at all. Each entry says what stands in view, then why the plan and the site allowed nothing else. Sections run in fixed order and every hotel keeps its number.
- 01Palacio de SalSalt blocks in the walls and underfoot
- 02Sextantio Le Grotte della CivitaA tufa cave wall left largely unfinished
- 03Kruisherenhotel MaastrichtA church nave read from a raised deck
- 04Hotel UniqueA curved hull pierced by round windows
- 05Hotel OttiliaBrewery brick and ironwork kept in view
- 06Conservatorium HotelA glass roof over a full-height court
A list of facilities tells you what a hotel has bought. What stands in front of a guest tells you how it was planned, where it sits and what it is made of, because none of those things can be added later. A wall of salt, a sawn ice block or a blank capsule panel is the building explaining itself. How we read that sets out the method.