Occupying 137 to 139 Lower Marsh in London, “Stowaway” is a new five-story, 20-unit aparthotel with a unique twist: it is made entirely from 30-foot shipping containers. An aparthotel (short for apartment hotel, as you may have guessed) is an extended stay location that combines the features of a boutique hotel with the comforts and conveniences of an apartment. Stowaway is a direct response to the demands for more flexible living and working patterns in Central London, providing 20 modular, compact apartments.
The Doone Silver Kerr-designed project stacks five levels of five shipping containers each to fit neatly into its tight site. On the ground floor is a reception area and a restaurant designed to complement the eclectic, collaborative community of Lower Marsh. Twenty containers are spread evenly across the four levels above, housing one room each.
Guest rooms each feature a king-size bed, television, walk-in shower, and a kitchen with a dishwasher, sink, and microwave. In order to maximize the size of the space for each room, the bed area doubles as a lounge space with a cushioned backrest opposite the mounted television. Finishing materials such as timber and marble are used in the detailing throughout each room.
See Also: AS+GG releases design scheme for the South HeXi Yuzui Financial District and Tower
The containers’ skin is conceived as a refined shell using self-finished surfaces and optimized using high-performance materials to achieve maximum internal dimensions. Fins cut diagonally across the top of each shipping container to provide some privacy and solar shading while also changing the aesthetics of the facade depending on which direction you are looking from.
Doone Silver Kerr designed the project for Stow Projects and Ciel Capital.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
CityCenter Takes Experience Design To New Heights
It's early June, in Las Vegas, which means it's very hot, and I am coming to the end of a hardhat tour of the $9.2 billion CityCenter development, a tour that began in the air-conditioned comfort of the project's immense sales center just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and ended on a rooftop overlooking the largest privately funded development in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
The softer side of Sears
Built in 1928 as a shining Art Deco beacon for the upper Midwest, the Sears building in Minneapolis—with its 16-story central tower, department store, catalog center, and warehouse—served customers throughout the Twin Cities area for more than 65 years. But as nearby neighborhoods deteriorated and the catalog operation was shut down, by 1994 the once-grand structure was reduced to ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Healthcare
11. Operating Room-Integrated MRI will Help Neurosurgeons Get it Right the First Time A major limitation of traditional brain cancer surgery is the lack of scanning capability in the operating room. Neurosurgeons do their best to visually identify and remove the cancerous tissue, but only an MRI scan will confirm if the operation was a complete success or not.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: Westin Book Cadillac Hotel & Condominiums Detroit, Mich.
“From eyesore to icon.” That's how Reconstruction Awards judge K. Nam Shiu so concisely described the restoration effort that turned the decimated Book Cadillac Hotel into a modern hotel and condo development. The tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924, the 32-story Renaissance Revival structure was revered as a jewel in the then-bustling Motor City.
| Aug 11, 2010
Silver Award: Palmer House Hilton Hotel & Shops Chicago, Ill.
Chicago's Palmer House Hilton holds the record for the longest continuously operated hotel in North America. It was originally built in 1871 by Potter Palmer, one of America's first millionaire developers. When it was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire it became the first hotel in the U.S. to put a telephone in every room.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gulf Coast Hotel's Stormy Road to Recovery
After his initial tour of the dilapidated 1850s-era Battle House Hotel, Ron Blount, construction manager with Retirement Systems of Alabama, said to his boss: “You need a priest more than you need a contractor.” Those words were more prescient to RSA's restoration of the historic Mobile landmark than he could have known at the time.
| Aug 11, 2010
Lifestyle Hotel Trends Around the World
When the Rocco Forte Collection opens the Verdura Golf & Spa Resort in Sicily in early 2009, the 200-room luxury property will be one of the world's newest lifestyle hotels. Lifestyle hotels cater to guests seeking a heightened travel experience, which they deliver by offering distinctive—some would say avant-garde, or even outrageous—architecture, room design, amenities, and en...
