IKEA suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.IKEA suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.IKEA suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Espoo suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Espoo suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Espoo suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Espoo suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Artifort suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Details from Artifort suite (left) & Boss & Ydee (right) at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Vormen suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Vormen suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel.Durlet suite at Eyes/ Nights Only Temporary Hotel. For this year’s Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk, Belgian creative agency DIFT introduced EYES/NIGHTS ONLY – a temporary hotel concept set within in an abandoned heritage building. Partnering with furniture brands such as Artifort, IKEA, Espoo and Durlet, designers Yves Drieghe & Bert Pieters transformed the rooms of an old school set for demolition into temporary hotel suites. The abandoned building will soon be knocked down to make way for luxury flats, but not before it had it’s last hurrah during the 10 day design event. The concept was to capture the spirit of temporary residences, in which designers and brands created an artistic installation reflecting their take on a hotel room as areas for sleeping, relaxing and celebrating the night.EYES/NIGHTS ONLY was located in one of the oldest parts of the city’s Broelschool, formerly a nunnery. During the day, the rooms were accessible to visitors, and at night they became the rationale of the project – creating affordable rooms for young designers and visitors of the Biennale Interieur 2014. The Broelschool’s original features – including colourful walls, ornate cornicing and patterned tiles – are different in each room, with each one slightly dilapidated. The brands had to adapt their own styles to complement these palettes and materials, taking the visitors on a discovery path of unprecedented ways of sleeping.This is such a super cool concept, no? Do you think we could pull something like this off in Australia – i.e. stage a commercial event in a building set for demolition? Can you imagine the amount of red tape that would be involved? Argh, I get frustrated just thinking about it. [Images courtesy of DIFT.]Share the love:FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterest One Response Anna November 14, 2014 Lovely little project, it’s a shame to think that the building is about to be knocked down rather than repaired and re-purposed, those tiles…You could probably do it in Australia as long as the building wasn’t structurally unsound. Just because a building is scheduled for demolition doesn’t mean that it isn’t fit for habitation, unfortunately. I’m reminded of a Lacaton & Vassal project to renovate and extensively renew some old social housing towers in France a few years ago, it would have been cheaper than building totally new apartments and would have resulted in larger, lighter apartments with balconies. There was however apparently such a fixed preconception that the buildings were irredeemably bad that they government knocked them down anyway. ReplyLeave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ
Anna November 14, 2014 Lovely little project, it’s a shame to think that the building is about to be knocked down rather than repaired and re-purposed, those tiles…You could probably do it in Australia as long as the building wasn’t structurally unsound. Just because a building is scheduled for demolition doesn’t mean that it isn’t fit for habitation, unfortunately. I’m reminded of a Lacaton & Vassal project to renovate and extensively renew some old social housing towers in France a few years ago, it would have been cheaper than building totally new apartments and would have resulted in larger, lighter apartments with balconies. There was however apparently such a fixed preconception that the buildings were irredeemably bad that they government knocked them down anyway. Reply
