Eleven years ago, Danish homeware company Vipp opened its very first guesthouse in Sweden. Called Vipp Shelter, the house is a 55 m2 prefabricated steel pod that, today, can be rented starting from EUR 1,500 for two nights. Since then, Vipp has gone on to build and open 10 other guesthouses around the world and they have all been widely celebrated for their designs.
Now, if you look on their website, you'll see that they describe their guesthouses in the following way: "Not a hotel. Not a showroom. Not like any place you've ever stayed." This is mostly true, but they are also like showrooms for the company. And I've always found this to be a clever strategy, because what better way to experience a brand then to live with it for a few days in some beautiful locale.
Their latest guesthouse is called Vipp Tunnel (pictured above) and it's located in the Tasmanian bush. In case you're interested, it opened this week for bookings.
Photos via Vipp
We’ve been talking about a lot of heavy topics here on Architect This City lately. Everything from the contentious Gardiner Expressway East to minimum population densities to density creep.
So today I thought we could talk about something a bit more fun: architecture.
When I was in New York last weekend, one of the buildings that was on my must-see list was the now under construction West 57th Street by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. See photo above. (It also happens to be at the exact location where the West Side Highway transitions from elevated to surface boulevard.)
This is supposedly the first North American project for Bjarke Ingels (he also has a project in Vancouver now). And if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’m a fan of his work. His diagrams and storytelling ability were a big inspiration for me when I was in architecture school.
The concept behind the project was to create a new hybrid building typology, one that is a cross between the typical European perimeter block building and the North American skyscraper. And the result is pretty wild.
Here’s a video in case you aren’t familiar with the project. Click here if you can’t see it below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0JbTbOm_iQ?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
I think it’s a really exciting project. What are your thoughts?