Student Work
1∕6
Title
HOST
Project Description
Miami Beach was built for the rich and famous, literally. An island dreamed up by a rail tycoon in the early twentieth century, the strip has survived on a glamorous allure that only few can afford. However, upon one visit, you will find a difficult reality. Among rows of private enclaves along the beach, there is no urban character, no quality of space, but rather a collection of independently functioning worlds. Beyond the walls of luxury hotels, the city lacks and identity or sense of place. It is not a city for a public, but rather one for a visitor, and a rich one at that. Thus, HOST sits on a new kind of integrated site that includes public access to the beach, affordable accommodations, and luxury living simultaneously. In this new configuration HOST proposes a new brand of hospitality at the intersection of the pretentious mega-hotels along Miami Beach and the modest honesty of Airbnb taking over the greater Miami Area. In challenging the typical hotel model, HOST offers a variety of room-types: studio, deluxe studio, one bedroom, and hostel. However, the rooms are organized not by floor, but by block. In doing so, HOST challenges typical devices of efficiency and spatial planning in most housing projects: the large public podium topped by a tireless stack of double loaded corridors is no longer. Instead, blocks of private rooms float throughout the semi-public building creating a new kind of vertical village where visitors can discover various public terraces and spaces that are not on the typical route from elevator to room. These communal spaces include three kitchens, two living rooms, two workspaces, a locker room, a laundry bar (for utility and leisure), an indoor/outdoor beach-scape, and a fitness studio. By reorganizing the typical core to slab relationship, HOST fosters a novel form of urban hospitality, a space of chance encounter.