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[above: Kids fortress bed with full mini-golf room from the Propeller Island Hotel]
Ever wonder what it would be like to be stuck in prison, live in a museum or stay in a hotel room in space? Art and concept hotels have begun addressing every fantasy you may have had … and some you probably haven’t. These twenty rooms range from playfully artistic to mind-bogglingly surrealistic with everything in between. Also be sure to check out the original 16 incredibly creative and sexy hotel rooms.
This room at the Propeller Island Hotel is something of a strange cross between prisoner and miner quarters. The harsh physical environment and somewhat uncomfortably sloped sleeping arrangements are augmented by the all-or-nothing harsh overhead lighting and thin slotted windows that are the only way to see outside the rooms.
This room may look like it is merely cluttered with antiques but its interior design actually tells the history of the Propeller Island Hotel with artifacts dating back to the hotel’s inception. Various objects on the wall range from early fixtures to pieces of failed structural supports all reworked to fit various purposes both functional and decorative.
Want something a bit more exotic? This room features a suspended bed and also incorporates structural members from the hotel’s past. The raised bed creates an intimate (if strange) gathering space below it and the bed itself can be raised or lowered manually via a series of pulleys mounted in the corners of the room.
Why anyone would want to stay in a room that reminds them of their grandmother’s house is anyone’s guess but perhaps that home-away-from-home is just what some people are looking for in their hotel stay. The room is fitted with antique fixtures and furniture and comes complete with an (albeit creepy) image of a generic grandmother.
At the quite opposite end of the spectrum from the previous room this sensual and sexy hotel room interior is decorated with nude portraits as only the sexually liberated Germans could imagine. Part art and part erotica, the plush purple interior and other decorations clearly cater to a more romantic clientele.
For those less interested in a particular conceptual theme but enamored with a specific color (and the mood it creates) this series of brightly colored hotel rooms might be just the thing. Their decorations and materiality play off the colors and reference various parts of the world and times of year with different light conditions.
The Philosopher’s Hotel features a series of rooms that are perhaps less overtly amazing but equally compelling for the right clientele: each room revolves around the life, work and philosophy of a particularl philosopher. The above rooms, for example, respectively play off Georges Bataille’s concepts of sexuality and eroticism, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophies of language, ethics and mysticism and Henry David Thoreau’s obsession with time, age and nature. Other rooms revolve around famous thinkers such as Nihilist Friedrich Nietzsche and pseudo-Taoist Confusious.
The Hotel FOX in Copenhagen has dozens of rooms featuring the interior design work of a wide range of graphic designers, sculptors, photographers, animators and graffiti artists. One artist describes their room as a “flip-book in motion” while another describes hers as “The glorious, technicolor-dream-coat room where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.â€? Each room reflects the personality and artistic approach of its creator who, in each case, was given free reign to design.
Bigelow Aerospace was once involved directly with NASA in developing space-based residences related to the United States space program. Since parting ways with NASA, the company has already launched prototypes of its inflatable space hotel rooms that are slated to be open to (at least rich members of) the public in less than a decade. And if that isn’t creepy and cramped enough for you, check out this crazy collection of the 7 of the Smallest Hotels and Hotel Rooms in the World!
Previously: Most Creative Hotel Rooms
Next: Crazy and Kinky Hotel Rooms
Check Out These Great Related Articles:
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35 Comments
March 12th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
How could you even fall asleep in some of those rooms.
March 13th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Haha, thats what I was thinking too..! The colors would be to disturbing..
March 13th, 2008 at 11:38 am
people are crazy i think.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:56 am
why would you WANT to stay in half those rooms? and do they have room service in space? ;P
March 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
These are evidences of how avant-garde approaches to design need to die. None of these seem to be designed for the functionality of travelers lodging, but are some architect’s ego-trip.
Good design is concerned more about how the object itself is used rather than the expressive tastes of the artists. A chair should be comfortable to sit on first, then be artistically or visually interesting.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Wow those are some really bazaar hotel rooms. Proppeller Island Hotel room looks a little small.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I have to see more of this flip book in motion room in Copenhagen. Some of these rooms are visually stunning, but I wonder what the occupancy rates are. There are a few you couldn’t pay me to stay in.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:16 am
great list - posted it on listdid.com - thanks!
March 14th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Gravity… how can there be gravity in an orbital hotel? The illustration above is quite misleading, unless they want to spin these rooms to create artificial gravity or have somehow figured out the mystery of how it all works!
March 14th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Those are some scary looking rooms, nice pictures. Dugg it.
March 15th, 2008 at 4:21 am
very nice
March 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
You missed The Efteling Hotel in The Netherlands. It has 19 theme rooms that each are themed to a different fairy tale.
March 17th, 2008 at 8:52 am
i love this blog. but about this article…are people so rich and bored that we have to dream up crazy and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements? they should put up a fancy hotel sign next to an alley and a cardboard box and charge people to sleep there. it would be shabby-chic, homeless style.
March 18th, 2008 at 3:09 am
Like the rooms with light ambience, although these furniture styles are not so good… i woud feel like in circus
March 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
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March 19th, 2008 at 6:46 am
While interesting, I’m not in a big rush to stay in most of those rooms. The exception would be the orbiting hotel. That would be an experience!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 am
I agree with Rose, “While interesting, I’m not in a big rush to stay in most of those rooms. The exception would be the orbiting hotel. That would be an experience!”
Kristal Rosebrook
March 24th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Hotel Pelirocco in Brighton should be on your list - Google it!
March 26th, 2008 at 3:45 am
They are very creative :)
April 5th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Strange hotels |0|
April 5th, 2008 at 1:41 am
I like that white room in hotel fox.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 am
I don’t know how should I rate those rooms… :)
July 20th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Going through the first few in the list I had a sudden feeling in mind as to why one should stay in such a con justed room which resembles a prison. Might be there are people who would prefer those for a change.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I loved these rooms. I am more about style than function though, and would enjoy every room.
For me, it would feel like sleeping in a work of art. Imagine curling up in your favorite painting and falling asleep!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Blimmin brilliant. About time interesting interior design came about, I for one am bored senseless by white walls and brown leather sofas. Feeds the imagination! Would love to stay in any one of these rooms.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
These are Interesting actually, although I dont’ think I’d want to stay in a Hotel that reached the Earth’s Orbit, and inflatable? No thank you on that one. That’s just like having an invitation to death. Good post.
November 6th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Confucious was not a pseudo-Taoist. He founded Confucianism. Lol sorry, I’m a philosophy nut. Cool rooms, though! I especially like the philosopher’s hotel. I like the rooms from the Japanese place, too!
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