Arch'it - bandi di concorso

What is Shelter

Sponsors: Shelter Resorts & The Valor Group

Type: Open, international
Registration Deadline: July 15, 1999
Submission Deadline: July 15, 1999
Open to: All
Entry Fee: $55
Awards: US$10,000 Total (Approximately)
Jury: Announced April 12, 1999

Project Description
Air travel routes shift over time to address the demands of new travel patterns. Cruise liners traverse the seas, carrying travelers across the globe. Why can't a land-based hotel be portable as well? A novel concept, perhaps, that begs further questions to challenge the traditional notions of inflexibility in the hotel industry:

a.. Why must rooms go empty simply because seasons change and travelers go elsewhere? Why can't hotels follow the travelers?
b.. Why can't a hotel expand and contract to meet demand as other nimble service industries do?
c.. Why must development and preservation be diametrically opposed concepts so often in this industry?

The answers, of course, lie in the fact that the "hotel" is historically defined in extremely limited terms, as a business housed in real estate, fixed, immovable, secured on a rigid foundation, and tied into a labyrinthine infrastructure of utilities.

Other definitions have rarely been visited, due to the challenges of providing an appealing lodging property for the traveler that wants to visit adventurous locales where development is necessarily limited, due to:

a.. difficult building conditions;
b.. extremes in seasonality;
c.. political, regional or economic instability;
d.. short term windows of opportunity; or,
e.. the environmental impact of traditional methods of construction.

To address these challenges, The Valor Group presents Shelter Resorts.

Shelter Resorts is a portable tent village, featuring spacious, comfortable, and safe accommodations for a unique vacation experience. The word "tent" hardly does justice to the concept of guest accommodations at a Shelter Resort.

Elegant and spacious guestrooms cover 500 to1500 square feet in size, with ceilings stretching from 8 to 15 feet in height. Hotel guests are embraced in natural materials - walls of bright canvas, sailcloth, netting and vibrant tapestries, rolled up each morning by your personal attendants to let in the scents of ocean breezes. Luxuriantly appointed bedrooms open to expansive living areas and grand private decks all filled with beautiful furnishings crafted by artisans from throughout the Pacific Rim.

From without, the village is a collage of sweeping, vibrant colors set within the indescribably beautiful natural frame of Costa Rica's rainforest, the cliffs of the islands of Honduras, between the mountains and oceans of Baja, or above the jungles of Peru.

A Shelter Resort can be built almost anywhere with temperate to tropical climates. It is completely portable, reusable and recyclable. The resort is served by portable alternative energy sources and safe, environmentally sensitive water purification and waste treatment systems. All structures, systems and construction techniques are developed in cooperation with leaders in sustainable building to assure little or no lasting impact on the natural environments with which a Shelter Resort coexists.

But a Shelter Resort is a functional business model as well as a delightful travel experience. Designed with quick assembly and portability in mind, a Shelter Resort can shift and adapt its layout to meet the preferences of the guests, can expand and contract as demand dictates throughout the season, and move to new locations as weather conditions fluctuate through the year. Even the level of service and the price point can change within days by changing the selection of features and amenities.

In delivering a functional combination of simple construction, portability, self-contained design, flexibility in service and pricing mix, environmental sensitivity, and guest satisfaction, Shelter Resorts defines a new category in the hospitality industry.

You are invited to participate in the Shelter Resorts Design Competition.

As a participant in the Competition, you will submit detailed drawings for your design for a guestroom tent for the first Shelter Resort, along with rough drawings and recommendations for the organization and arrangement of a "village" that will include 30-40 of your guestrooms and structures for common use.

All submissions will be judged based on a combination of creativity, practicality, quality of presentation, and adherence to the principles and objectives outlined in the Entry Kit.

For more information or to register, contact:

The Valor Group, LLC
Attn: Shelter Resorts Competition
1592 Union Street, Suite 93
San Francisco, CA, 94123 USA
Email: info@shelterresorts.com
Website: http://www.shelterresorts.com

Per segnalarci nuovi concorsi o per qualsiasi altra comunicazione
inviate una Email a redazione@architettura.it