The Allotment Hotel

This all started with a competition from Tablet called Rethink Hotel, to find a design concept for a Hotel that would attract people from all over the city and would have a steady stream visitors, without fly by night gimmicks (popular today, gone tomorrow).  The winner was Freelance Architect Dean Moran with The Allotment Hotel proposed location, New York City.  There so much more to say, so we will be adding more information, in the article.  To get the best effect, once in the article you can enlarge the image by pressing it (not the first one).

For more City Food Production look at Urban Farm Building + Window Greengrocer.

Internal Courtyard:
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This concept building is centred around food, the growth, preparation and the eating, encouraging connections between guests / visitors and local food producers.  As well as the Accommodation there are four factors that embody this Hotel: The Market, The Restaurant, The Food Tours and The Rooftop.

The Market:
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This is a daily market that would take place in the Hotel and would see shops and producers of food within 100Km (62 mile) radius of New York City.  Their produce has to be grown with sustainable methods.  Because the market is there every day, there would be a rotation of different producers and products, which would spark interest with the locals and the visitors, as you never know what you are going to get from one day to the next.  Finally guests and visitors can purchase items from the market and have the Hotel restaurant cook it for them.

The Restaurant:
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As we said before the people could bring produce from the market and ask the restaurant to cook it for them or choose from the fresh daily dishes the Chef has prepared.  An open kitchen and a big communal seating area surrounding it, would make it possible for the diners to see the produce they have bought,  cooked in front of them and at the same time interact with the people around them.

The Food Tours:
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When this way of life starts catching on, Tours can be organised to show all the different market and the generation of local sustainable food production.  Things like Roof top bee keeping or small scale farming.  If this idea takes off, it can become a good leaning experience for the people taking part, where they can be taught how to produce food in the city.

The Rooftop:
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This space is one that offers a lot of promise, with a many different options or a mixture of the following:  The space could be divided in allotments that could be allocated to local residents to grow their own products.  The hotel could grow their own produce that would increase the base products used in the restaurants.  Classes could be set-up to teach young school classes, or adults wanting to replicate this model of sustainability.  Even though this would be farming, on a small scale, if all the rooftops in New York were used to produce food, that would all add up.  The roofs themselves would be better insulated and the water collected on the rooftops would not be flushed in the sewers overwhelming them during strong rainfalls.

Green Wall Front:
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This project looks like a really good scheme, with a lot of potential.  I am sure that if and when it is executed, there might have to be some some slight compromises, for commercial purposes.  The project won the competition in February 2013 and the ultimate test will be if it is actually constructed and if it supplies the foot traffic the Hotel will need to provide all of these features and turn a profit.

Please leave your comments below to let us know what you think of this project.