Project Details

POD Hotel
9 weeks

This semester‐long studio project, which was based on freehand drawing, began with the design of a POD room (a small, efficient space) with a maximum size of 80 sq. feet, inspired by two chosen objects: a nautilus shell and a bento lunch box. Themes of balance, a strong central axis, embedded volumes, and heavy vs. light emerged as important facets of the project and design process. Following a field trip to New York City, the POD room was multiplied and developed into a POD Hotel, to be located on a site adjacent to the High Line and featuring a prominent public space. The design is influenced by the limited space in New York, by the financial and spatial needs of visitors, and by the alternative social role that New York hotels often play, and it is inspired by notable New York sites, including the Morgan Library, the Austrian Cultural Forum and the High Line. The design not only fits into the gridded urban context with a floating façade that is suggestive of the aggregation of POD rooms, but it is also thought‐provoking and visually arresting, as a planted back rooftop terrace deals with the issue of its adjacency to the High Line. Throughout the latter parts of the design process, I was influenced by the lessons in sustainability from my Systems, Sites and Building course (ARCH 3230), which is reflected in the façade playing a role in seasonal temperature regulation and the self‐seeded nature of the back terrace.