Hotels are familiar sights in our cities, ones that have been rooted in the urban landscape for as long as we can remember. They are also a building that is perpetually subject to modification, in anticipation of social, economic, and cultural changes. The exhibition “Hotel Metropolis – Since 1818” illustrates the history of this form of architecture since its emergence, depicts the current state of Paris’ hotels, and explores new perspectives on these institutions in light of the environmental challenges we have begun to face.
Just ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Grand Paris is
reinventing its hotel architecture. From family rooms, to capsule beds,
dormitories, XXL suites, inhabited rooftops, landscaped courtyards, and
multi-purpose lobbies, more than 150 projects for every preference and budget
are currently being planned or built. The Paris region has 2,450 hotels
that offer more than 150,000 rooms. In 2018, these facilities managed
52 million occupancies, a trend that continues to rise and which ultimately
does not seem to be affected by the appearance of new actors, especially
private apartment rental platforms.
Alongside the historical, economic, and technical analyses overseen by Catherine Sabbah and Olivier Namias, with the support of studies conducted by the engineers at S2T and the architects at ON CITIES, four multidisciplinary teams have reimagined the future of hotel spaces in response to the challenges that climate change poses. Each team created innovative full-scale prototypes that offer a new vision. Jean-Benoît Vétillard has reinterpreted hotel marquees with a plant-fiber canopy powered with a dynamo installed in the revolving door below. Lina Ghotmeh looked at potential new uses of a hotel room, which can be transformed into an office, a fitness center, a work space, or a recording studio by condensing all sleep and hygiene functions into an “App Wall.” Nicolas Dorval-Bory, a partner in the studio Vorbot, decarbonizes the hallway, the veritable spine of a building that holds all its and networks and conduits. Keeping in mind that every hotel customer uses an average of 300 liters per day, the architects and builders of the studio Ciguë have constructed an environmentally virtuous bathroom with reused materials that consumes dramatically less water.
With this first exhibition devoted to the Parisian hotel, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal seeks to define this architecture, at once familiar and unknown, ultimately to understand its future more clearly.
Alongside the historical, economic, and technical analyses overseen by Catherine Sabbah and Olivier Namias, with the support of studies conducted by the engineers at S2T and the architects at ON CITIES, four multidisciplinary teams have reimagined the future of hotel spaces in response to the challenges that climate change poses. Each team created innovative full-scale prototypes that offer a new vision. Jean-Benoît Vétillard has reinterpreted hotel marquees with a plant-fiber canopy powered with a dynamo installed in the revolving door below. Lina Ghotmeh looked at potential new uses of a hotel room, which can be transformed into an office, a fitness center, a work space, or a recording studio by condensing all sleep and hygiene functions into an “App Wall.” Nicolas Dorval-Bory, a partner in the studio Vorbot, decarbonizes the hallway, the veritable spine of a building that holds all its and networks and conduits. Keeping in mind that every hotel customer uses an average of 300 liters per day, the architects and builders of the studio Ciguë have constructed an environmentally virtuous bathroom with reused materials that consumes dramatically less water.
With this first exhibition devoted to the Parisian hotel, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal seeks to define this architecture, at once familiar and unknown, ultimately to understand its future more clearly.
