PERISCOPE HOTEL

TYPE: urban

LOCATION: Athens city centre

PROJECT: total building renovation and structural reinforcement, architectural & interior design, furniture design, urban surveillance mechanisms design, id creation & branding

DATE: 2002-2005

DESIGN CONCEPT
Although situated in a small plot at a narrow, densely built street in central Athens, the six-storey building offers amazing panoramic views of the city from its roof terrace. The idea of bringing that roof view into the building, to be projected in its public spaces, generated the concept of the hotel as an urban surveillance mechanism. A wireless periscope device in the hotel’s lobby is connected with a camera placed on the roof. The visitor can use the periscope to pan, tilt and zoom in or out the camera, manipulating the image projected on the screen of the hotel lobby. When the periscope is not in use, a screensaver of an urban fiction animation plays on the screen. Aerial photographs of parts of Athens cover the ceiling of the hotel’s ‘torpedo rooms’, skyline panoramic night shots of the city are placed on the beams or the suites, a depth meter appears on the central column of the stairs, a gauge meter in the elevator... The architectural design, selection of materials, furniture and graphics emphasise the concept through the aesthetics of submarine and geographical mappings.

PROJECT TEAM:
M. Doxa, A. Vaitsos, C. Loperena, K. Gudsell, E. Zambeli, M. Stassinopoulos, I. Mari, Z. Tsermou
M. Kyriazis
G. Cavoulacos
N. Doxas
K. Koryllos
P. Germides
N. Danelides
K. Gudsell, A. Khune
J. Karlopoulos
J. Ganas