In this article, we continue our series on Competitions.archi, presenting a collection of articles on different architectural competitions. Today, we will be featuring the winner of the Inspiration Hostel Competition by OpenGap.
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We are Romane and Alice, two students at ENSA – Paris Belleville. Having recpectively studied for our undergraduate degrees in Brussels and in Marseille, we met in Paris for our Master’s degree. We participated in the Inspiration Hotel competition, proposed by Opengap as part of our studio. The idea was to imagine a hotel where artists would come to find a residence for inspiration and creativity. The location was free to each participant.
To start, we will talk about some tips on how to approach a first competition experience, then detail a bit more our proposal and finally, our presentation panels, which are all as important as the project itself.
Entering a competition requires immersing oneself in a world of deep questioning. Indeed, to really understand the stakes of the exercise, the first objective is to turn the competition question upside down, modulate it, modify it. In a way: to appropriate it, in order to propose a more thoughtful and adequate answer. For our part, we put aside all the specifications to let our imaginative freedom guide us.
Taking the example of the inspiration hotel for artists which was the subject of our competition, we first thought about the art forms that this could imply: paintings, sculptures, photographs… Further on, we looked at body art, performances, experiments, some happenings or even land art… This helped us to understand the atmosphere we were looking for in our project. Very quickly, we asked ourselves what visitors to our hotel would want to do there. How a hotel could become more than a place of passage, but rather a real experience. This was the main idea that we were committed to throughout the project.
Then, a series of questions arose concerning the nature of the hotel itself. About its location: it could have been lost in an oasis, or directly confronted with the city in the heart of New York. It could have been immersed in a supermarket inspired by contemporary consumer society, or it could have gone to the moon, with the idea of achieving the impossible.
Speaking of reaching the place, the question of the journey is also very important. The nature of the route to the hotel is also carefully considered. Does the artist reach it in a perilous way or rather serenely? Is it long – taking several months, or quick – lasting just a few hours?
Also, upon arrival, is there physically a hotel that receives the artists or was the trip itself the source of inspiration sought? During their stay at the hotel of inspiration, is the artist alone or do they meet people? Do they come to create or simply to be inspired? Do they leave with their creations? We can also ask about the length of the stay, or whether it is tedious, dangerous, luxurious or ordinary.
Thus, this first stage of the thousand questions plunges us into a universe where everything is possible, and where creative and imaginative freedom is omnipresent. It is necessary to let our mind escape to be able to experiment the field of possibilities, to consider all the solutions and to be convinced that the final answer is the best and the most convincing one.
To answer the competition’s challenge, we started from the position that the source of inspiration is at hand but that everyday life sometimes gets in the way. For us, there is no need to take refuge in a utopian place to get inspired, as is often suggested. The artist can be so blocked, biased, etc.… by their daily environment that they can no longer fully perceive it; it is simply a matter of finding a way to rediscover his surroundings, to approach it and change one’s perspective. A new point of view can provide real inspiration. For us, the artist had to take height physically to recharge psychically.
So, we propose to the artist to stay on the roofs of Paris.
To be honest, a rooftop location was our initial idea. Only to verify its relevance and its power, we went through all the questions we mentioned above, we interrogated other places of implantation as ruins, oasis, jungle… But it is up on the roofs that we felt the greatest potential of creativity.
However, we knew that “down there”, i.e. in the streets of a city, the daily pressure is too strong and becomes suffocating. We did not want the artist to experience this first and then stay in the inspirational hotel. So, the decision was that the artist would come to Paris and discover the city with the greatest intention to never touch the ground.
The artist then enjoys a new city and a new view, all of which forms a unique experience. Perched, he becomes a spectator and actor of an observatory. The inspiration comes from the passers-by, the sky, the horizon, the infinite…
But how do we design this rooftop observatory?
To begin with, we studied the place in detail. One of the particularities of the Parisian roofs that emerged was that the chimney walls structure the space and give rhythm to the facades. Therefore, it was around them that the search for a project evolved. Our first sketches were not to scale as you can see (cf First intention’s sketches) we couldn’t perceive the full potential of our ideas. Therefore, from this moment on, we draw to scale to move forward.
Our architecture uses the roofs to build itself. The observatory can be placed on the walls, between the walls, in compression, or even in the thickness of a wall… (cf Possibilities of placement). However, as you can see on these sketches, the few first tests were still quite limited. However, as each roof is unique and has its own specificity, there are many different and atypical architectural possibilities. A series of experiments began to take shape, looking for volumes, locations, and points of view, keeping in mind the memorable experience we wanted to offer to the artist, rather than the search for a detailed, even constructible, architecture. Indeed, we must not forget that this is a competition of ideas. We should not necessarily think of realistic volumes but rather start from the principle that we can always find a way to concretize our craziest ideas: this widens even more the field of possibilities and the potential of creativity.
In order to advance the process of reflection, we looked for a precise location in Paris. We selected a typical block of Haussmannian architecture, in the Marais, in the heart of the capital. Moreover, located in front of the Pompidou Art Center, the residents perched on the roofs are directly immersed in an artistic, creative and inspiring atmosphere.
On this block, we wanted to offer each resident a unique experience, but we also wanted to have a unified place. Developing a common thread allowed us to create a homogeneity in the different ideas that crossed our minds and to reinforce these ideas by proposing coherences with each other. In the end, it is a solid project, with a strong but concrete main idea, and materializations of this concept in different forms. This narrative arc helped us to keep a direction and to make choices during the evolution of the project.
Our goal was to propose a pathway across the roofs (cf Pathway across the roofs), leaving them sometimes very rough, to put the visitors to the test. This path is simply materialized by a handrail, which is articulated on the beams of ridges in the manner of a conductive ribbon and of some ladders (cf The handrail). The latter were for the most part already on the roofs, and recall the old trade of chimney sweeps: once again, the chimneys come to justify our project choices. As the artist can go all around the block, they sometimes meet what we called nodes, interesting crossings between private and common spaces.
The private spaces are then similar to small studios of spatial exploration. Indeed, implanted in specific places of the roofs, they will first be faithful to the topography, then they will also propose experimental volumes: the aim is then to experience narrowness in a big and thin space, compression in a space between two walls, height in a small tower, infinity in a circular space, etc… (cf Axonometry of the residences)
Again, regardless of the potential for rooftop buildability here, the preference is to encourage unique and unusual stories.
Public spaces are gathering places. Sometimes they are open-air, like modest gazebos, and sometimes they are enclosed and contain specific functions, like a small library.
Finally, we wanted to talk about the competition panel, which seemed to us to be a job in itself. To begin with, we were asked for an explanatory scenario of the experiment we were proposing. Attached is the text from the final presentation.
To rise.
To get an overview.
To feel the urban vibrations from above.
To get away from the hustle and bustle of your own life.
To get contemplative, meditative, inspired by a unique viewpoint of a unique landscape.
A calm place between the bustle of the city below and the ever-changing clouds and sky above.
Perched on the Parisian roofscape, discovering the city from above rather than down at street level. This is what the Inspiration Hostel proposes as a new way to get inspired.
On arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport, you will be welcomed by personnel from the hostel, who will take you on an hour-long trip, 20 km, hot-air balloon ride. You float across the whole city before being lowered down onto a giant net stretched over the courtyard of a typical city block. You find yourself immersed in a new world: a seemingly infinity expanse of zinc roofs, terra cotta chimneys, and a never-ending sky.
The Inspiration Hostel offers different kinds of architecture for each unit, adapted to the particularities of each roof. You are free to explore a rooftop zone made accessible by nets, steps and hand-rails until you find the studio unit that appeals to you most.
Some of the studios are tall and narrow, others are wide, some are angular, others rounded, some offer oriented views, others give panoramic 360° vistas. You can create your art facing the infinite, take your bath in front of the Eiffel Tower, sleep watching the stars, or draw the curtains around you and be all alone.
Between the private spaces, you will find places to meet with the others artists: platforms to congregate upon, a library or a living room.
You may also find yourself down a series of steps up to viewpoint and enjoy a moment of urban silence and meditation.
Otherwise, you can simply appreciate the topography of the zinc roof.
At the end of your stay, the hot-air balloon will pick you up and take you back to the airport, giving you one last view of Paris, the soul fully inspired.
To quickly elaborate, we wanted to play with the length of the first few sentences to remind us of the shape of the roofs and to immediately give our vision of the inspiration. Then, we wrote a text about a staging of the artist in the imagined place. Not to touch the ground imposed arriving by air, and the proposal of the hot-air balloon is not necessarily to be taken seriously, but more to see as a concretization of our idea. Moreover, it played on a historical point since Paris was the place of the first aerostatic flight.
For the question of the documents produced and displayed on two A1s, we decided to feature an illustration representing the project as a whole on the entire first page (cf Photocollage of the project). We relied on a photocollage to show the exact context, and to immediately immerge in our proposed atmosphere. The second board was more playful in its materials. Therefore, we offer two types of documents. We wanted to mix concrete architectural documents such as a perspective of the island detailing each plot of the hotel or small axonometries of each studio (cf Axonometry of the residences); but also more evocative documents, with collages representing the atmosphere of the multiple places. We built our board as if we were trying to show a day on the Parisian block. To make this clear, a color-changing sky lines the background of each document, which are all aligned with the same horizon line. To complete the analysis, a character at the top left of the plate was looking down to the right and vice versa, the character at the bottom right was looking up to the top left. This invisible diagonal allowed us to bring structure to the placement of the drawings and, once again, to justify our choices to the very end.
To summarize, we will try to give you some advice regarding important elements of architectural design.
First of all, especially in the context of a competition, we suggest that you develop two to three ideas in depth at the same time. In this way, if during the progress of the project one idea does not seem effective and is no longer relevant, you will always have something to bounce back to with the other ideas.
Moreover, let’s remember how important it is to work at the precise scale of your site. Even in a contest where the site is a free choice, it is important to quickly put yourself in context. Indeed, all ideas and intentions initially sketched must be thought and drawn at the scale of the site to validate or invalidate all their potential.
Moreover, convincing a jury can be done in several ways: through a strong idea or through an image that immerses them in the desired atmosphere. Thus, each of your documents must be straight to the point by effectively showing one or two intentions: either the design process, the atmosphere, or the dynamics of the space…
In our case, we opted for a mix between axonometrics made on Autocad to show the architecture of our proposal, and collages made on SketchUp, Photoshop and Illustrator, to immerse the jury in each of our ambiances. With this, we wanted to have a homogeneity in the board. So we chose two techniques. First of all, the choice of the photos we would use as base was solved by the quality and the adequate views which they offered. Then, we did not want to propose realistic images. For that, we opted for a work on the grains and textures (thanks to Photoshop) making the images more abstract and putting forward our first intentions of atmosphere. This way, all the photos seemed to belong together. Moreover, each image seemed to tend towards blue tones. That’s why we advise you to choose a color palette for the presentation of your final panels: blue in our case.
However, to end on a note of honesty, we realized that the architecture we were proposing could be similar to the thoughts of absolute architecture put forward by Superstudio. Our layout could have played even more on this movement and, why not become even more radical than it was?
Authors: Alice Bonnet, Romane Boucher from France
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