The capsule hotel with a sea view
Gianluca Santosuosso's MORPHotel concept offers a more aesthetically pleasing alternative to cruise ships
The Turin-born, London-based architect Gianluca Santosuosso has come up with a sleek-looking design to do away with those enormous and unsightly fuel-guzzling cruise ships that roam from one harbour to the next. If you've been to the Venice Bienale you'll know what we mean.
His MORPHotel is instead a series of dolphin-shaped capsules, which connect together to create a mobile floating spine half a mile in length. This structure allows it to adapt its shape to the weather conditions, curving with the water currents.
Each elongated capsule would have plectrum-shaped portholes and skylights, allowing guests multiple views from their sleeping quarters and the structure’s more central communal areas.
MORPHotel’s concept is reminiscent of the informal waterside communities that come about when houseboats are moored next to each other.
In terms of energy and some elements of sustenance, the MORPHotel would rely on solar panels, rainwater and wave energy harvesting, a desalination system, and a floating vegetable patch.
Santosuosso says his hotel, currently only a concept, was inspired by a widely held sense of wanderlust. “I believe the idea of the journey itself, without a precise destination, is a dream shared among most people," he explains. This is the reason why this project, the idea behind it, raised the interest of many people, especially in the hospitality industry.”
The designer says some potential developers have been in contact, though they are unlikely to hail from the conventional cruise ship sector. This is no QE2. For more visionary architecture take a look at our Japanese house book, Jutaku; for more futuristic ecological solutions, get The World We Made.