Accommodation Contemplation
Themes dreams and schemes
Our musings on design, hotels, hospitality, and how much we enjoy revealing Berlin to our guests on a personal scale
Design of the Hotel: Flexibility
Scritto da Matthew Griffin
In our architectural practice we strive to design flexibility into our buildings as possible. To do this we work at refining the design on multiple levels, from adaptable uses, through variable floor plans, and adjustable technology.
Desging flexible buildings and adapting existing buildings is arguabley the most important factor in sustainable urban development because it ensures their lasting relevance to our society.
Design of the Hotel: Builders and Bankruptcy
Scritto da Matthew Griffin
Building can be a minefield, unexpected things blow up in your face on a regular basis. When a company with goes broke on site, picking up the pieces is always a messy job.
While we were designing and building the minilofts, the Berlin economy was in dire straits, which meant we had many brushes with bankrupt builders that often bordered on the absurd.
Design of the hotel: Glazed crime thriller
Scritto da Matthew Griffin
Designing a building is one thing, getting it built is a completely different ball game. Our relationships with the builders ran the gamut from productive to the insanely stressful.
In particular our façade company's nightmare grade behavior kept us on our toes. The events played out like a dime novel that always had a new ugly surprise waiting for us.
Design of the hotel: Epitaph to a bad bank
Scritto da Matthew Griffin
Our primary interest was the design of the building, but to get it built we had to wade into the world of finance. Although the waters looked dark from the outset, they turned out to be far murkier than we expected!
This 'obituary' plumbs the depths of our ten year relationship with the HypoVereinsbank. It was rocky, dangerous, and emotionally draining, thank god it's finally over!
Design of the hotel: Old and new
Scritto da Matthew Griffin
The Miniloft building is a self confident hybrid of old and new. The physical layers of its
history give it a richness that cannot be created from scratch.
This article outlines the fascinating history of the building, its scars of war and neglect during the communist regime, and how the new design transformed it into a unique place to spend the night.
