The controversial Brutalist Pirelli Tire Building in New Haven, Connecticut was saved from demolition by a compromise with IKEA back in 2002, and now the Swedish retailer is reportedly considering a new use for the structure. Designed by Marcel Breuer, a master of Modernism whose monumental concrete creations remain divisive to this day, it’s one of the most important Brutalist buildings remaining in the United States. Now, if the rumors are true, it could be transformed into a hotel.

The building was initially built to serve as the headquarters of Armstrong Rubber in 1969. Consisting of a massive monolithic rectilinear volume of offices floating above a much longer base of research and warehouse space, the structure is nothing if not imposing. Many residents of New Haven found it ugly and villainous-looking, and once it was no longer in use, wanted to see it torn down. But it’s historically important, and advocacy groups pushed to keep it intact. IKEA proposed building a major new store on the site, but that required tearing down a substantial part of the building for the store’s parking lot.

After the sale went through and the structure was modified, many assumed IKEA would find a use for the remainder of the building – maybe for administrative purposes, as it was originally intended. But it has remained forlorn and empty, occasionally draped with a banner advertising a sale. It looks like that might finally change. The New Haven Independent newspaper reports that IKEA is “in talks” with a New England hotel developer.

While IKEA refuses to comment on any new plans for the New Haven Pirelli building, the city’s Economic Development Administrator, Matthew Nemerson, says the good news is “it is going to be preserved.” Would you book a night to experience this classic Brutalist building up close and personal?

Top photo by Gunnar Klack/Flickr Creative Commons

While many hotels are so lacking in personality, they could be located pretty much anywhere, these 14 thoughtfully designed tourist accommodations are infused in the character of their respective settings, taking cues from vernacular architecture or distilling the essence of their particular surroundings. You could stay in a fairytale treehouse village in Thailand, a Game of Thrones-themed ice hotel in Norway, a converted sugar mill in the mountains of China or an environmentally friendly resort on the beach in Chile designed with surfers in mind.

Emiliano Hotel, Brazil by Chad Oppenheim + Arthur Casas

A beautiful folding geometric facade gives Rio de Janeiro’s Emiliano Hotel lots of character, with panels opening or closing to give the rooms privacy and protect them from the weather. Located right on Copacabana Beach, the hotel has a fresh, modern look topped by an infinity-edge swimming pool. Inside, vertical greenery, skylights and more geometry give it a lush and airy feel. Rooms start at about $469 per night.

Fairytale Keemala Nest Hotel in Thailand by Architect Space

This hotel in the tropical hills of Phuket almost looks too amazing to be real. The design of the Keemala hotel is based on a fictional tale of four clans of ancient Phuket settlers, with four different styles of architecture: clay pool cottages, tent pool villas, tree pool houses and bird’s nest pool villas. Every room has a warm and welcoming atmosphere and comes complete with its own tubs and views of the grounds or the sea beyond the trees. Rooms start at around $657 per night.

Game of Thrones Themed Ice Hotel by HBO Nordic + Lapland Hotel

Would you sleep well with the Night King looming over your icy bed? HBO Nordic teamed up with the Lapland Hotel’s Snowvillage to create a ‘Game of Thrones’-themed attraction full of sculpted faces, white walkers and fur upholstery. This special edition ice hotel opened in Kittilä, Finland in February 2018 and will be up through April; rooms start around $200 per night, but you can stop by and take a look for the entry price of $18.

Alila Yangshuo, China: Sugar Mill Turned Hotel by Vector Architects

A crumbling 1960s sugar mill in China’s Guangxi region has become a dramatic new hotel called Alila Yangshuo, complementing the existing stone with new concrete structures. The grounds are primed for exploration of the former mill site and the Karst Mountains outside, contrasting industrial and natural settings with stunning results. Rooms start at $215 per night.

Maison Heler by Philippe Starck

An 18th century traditional Alsatian home will stand atop a modern tower in Metz, France – trees and all – in a surreal 14-story, 119-room hotel by Philippe Starck. Maison Heler literally elevates the region’s historic vernacular architecture high above the streets, with the ‘home’ containing a restaurant, lounge, meeting spaces and a rooftop terrace and garden while the tower contains guest rooms. The project will be developed as part of the Hilton Group Brand’s Curio Collection, a series of 50 upscale hotels with unusual personalities.

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Redefining what it means to be a hotel on the water, Svart by architectural firm Snøhetta is an energy-positive circular structure hovering above the frigid fjord at the foot of Norway’s Svartisen glacier. Unusual in both its shape and positioning, the new hotel will be the world’s first ‘Powerhouse’ hotel in the Arctic circle, producing its own energy while simultaneously reducing its energy needs. ‘Powerhouse’ is a standard developed in part by Snøhetta requiring a building to generate more renewable energy over a 60-year period than it uses during its lifetime, including the construction, material production and demolition processes.

The ring-shaped building is beautiful, especially after dark, but aesthetics were only a small factor in the design process. The hotel is located in a pristine natural environment, so having a light footprint on the land is essential. The circular shape also makes the most of available solar energy, strategically placing interior spaces like guest rooms, restaurants and terraces where they’ll get the most sunlight. Svart gets its heat from geothermal wells.

The structure itself features a promenade set just beneath it so guests can walk the full circle, gazing down at the water below, and also functions as a storage space for kayaks and other equipment in the summertime, as the hotel can only be accessed by boat. The slim wooden supports taper down to the rocks beneath the surface for the smallest possible disturbance on the setting. The architects took visual inspiration from a type of local vernacular architecture known as ‘fiskehjell,’ wooden structures used for drying fish, as well as traditional seasonal housing for fishermen.

“Building in such a precious environment comes with some clear obligations in terms of preserving the natural beauty and the fauna and flora of the site,” says Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, founding partner of Snøhetta. “It was important for us to design a sustainable building that will leave a minimal environmental footprint on this beautiful Northern nature. Building an energy positive and low-impact hotel is an essential factor to create a sustainable tourist destination respecting the unique features of the plot.”

Hyperloop transit is about to make the world a whole lot smaller, and with it could come a system of luxurious private pods outfitted like high-end hotel rooms so you can zoom from one city to the next in unprecedented comfort. While it might seem like there’s little need for such cush train cars when your trip takes less time than ever, the Hyperloop Hotel aims to solve the problem of where you’re going to stay while traveling.

Developed by Radical Innovation Award winner Brendan Siebrecht, the Hyperloop Hotel consists of shipping containers that double as traveling guest suites, able to ‘dock’ themselves at any of 13 different hotel stations in cities like Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Austin and New York City. While the nightly fee hasn’t been set yet, Siebrecht reveals that for a fee of $1,200, guests can even visit multiple cities in a single day. That’s right, you could maintain a comfy home base while having breakfast on the East Coast, lunch in the South and dinner on the West Coast.

It might sound too futuristic to be real, but Hyperloop One is already being tested in Las Vegas and could be carrying passengers by the year 2020, so it’s actually not that far away, assuming the technology stays on track (pun intended.) But the hotels definitely wouldn’t come cheap – it would cost about $10 million to build each one. The pods themselves feature a bedroom, office, bathroom and living room, with a glazed wall that can be covered while you’re in motion.

“I believe the Hyperloop One is the next big innovation in transportation in the United States and possibly the world,” Siebrecht told Business Insider. “I wanted to explore ways in which this technology could transform the overall travel experience and hospitality.”

After a few years of recession-induced stalling, record-smashing skyscrapers are going up around the world at a steady pace, knocking each other out of the top positions every year or so. While Dubai’s Burj Khalifa has held strong as the world’s tallest building, a number of new super-tall structures have sprouted up in the last two years to claim titles as the tallest in various cities and hemispheres, and a few proposals that are almost too tall to be believed aim to surpass the Burj by 2020.

432 Park Avenue, New York City

The tallest residential building in the world stands at 432 Park Avenue, topping out at 1,396 feet of exclusive condominium apartments. Completed in December 2015, the building is the third-tallest building in the United States and the second tallest building in New York City, behind One World Trade Center and ahead of the Empire State Building. It’s expected to be equaled in height by the 111 West 57th Street project in mid-2018. The video above documents the construction of the tower over the course of the entire building process.

MahaNakhon Skyscraper by Ole Scheeren, Thailand

Pixelating in two sections along the way to its 1,030-foot-high pinnacle, the MahaNakhon tower by Ole Scheeren is a striking new addition to Bangkok’s skyline. Located in the city’s central business district, the tower is Thailand’s tallest building and contains a public landscape plaza, retail center, 200 serviced apartments and a 150-room boutique hotel.

The Tower in Dubai by Santiago Calatrava

Famed architect Santiago Calatrava announced this year that he has been chosen to design and build the world’s tallest building, set to surpass the Burj Khalifa. Planned for Dubai Creek Harbor, ‘The Tower’ is a landmark observation structure offering panoramic views across the city from ‘The Pinnacle Room’ and observation garden decks attempting to recreate the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The tower will also contain a luxury boutique hotel, and is expected to be completed in advance of Dubai’s turn hosting the Expo 2020.

Grand Tower, Germany’s Tallest Residential Skyscraper

Germany’s tallest residential skyscraper is set to send 400 floors of high-end residences straight up into the sky of Frankfurt, creating a new urban landmark. The height of the tower will far surpass that of Germany’s provost tallest residential structure, the Colonia-Haus in Cologne. The penthouses at the top will enjoy wraparound glass-walled balconies gazing out onto the city.

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