Imagine a hotel room that can travel around the world, following its clients to business meetings, festivals or sporting events, no matter how inaccessible. The French hotel group AccorHotels has been experimenting with such a nomadic accommodation concept called ‘Flying Nest’.
Designed by Ora-ïto, the rooms are shipping containers finished in eco-friendly wood for a cosy chalet-like feel. Each one is 12 sq m, with a living area, private bathroom and large picture window that frames the landscape and offers stunning views from one’s bed. Modules are connected by terraces that invite guests to intermingle. The accommodations are self-sufficient, whether perched on a mountaintop or in the middle of the desert.
AccorHotels’ Global SVP Design Multibrand, Damien Perrot, calls Flying Nest a hospitality concept for the future, saying: ’We worked on creating an immersive experience more than just a room’.
Until now, the hotel group has literally been road-testing the concept with the plan to roll it out to the wider public. In March 2017, they placed a prototype in Clairefontaine, where France’s national football team trains, and invited a handful of fans to sleep steps from their idols. It then travelled to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Ora-ito was one of the guests. ‘I stayed up all night watching the cars race by, six metres away from my bed,’ he recalls.
Last summer, it touched down at the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival, where it was placed on a temporary beach with a DJ, bar and food trucks. In September it went to the Agora biennial art festival in Bordeaux.
This winter, Flying Nest will have its first public outing, 1,800 metres up in the air at the Avoriaz ski resort, allowing guests to simply roll out of bed and onto the slopes.
Article by Amy Serafin for Wallpaper*