CITY Issue 56

B itish masses in the late s. nyone who has eve been bumped f om an evening ﬂight and fo ced to stay in an ai po t Holiday Inn knows the e’s oom fo imp ovement in the ai po t hotel ma ket, and at Gatwick and Heath ow (and soon mste dam’s Schiphol), otels ﬁll the void. Wood oﬀe has said he wanted to make Japanese capsule hotels acceptable in the West, which appa ently means the addition of up-to-date elect onics, pe sonal “ ain” showe s, pu ple lighting, and, of cou se, nea ly times the space. He calls his units “cabins,” a te m loaded with the app op iate modula associations, as well as a efe ence to the B itish i ways ﬁ st-class cabin that p ovided the initial design inspi ation. otels t aﬃc in a cu ency of luxu y — enjoy “a hand-laye ed o ganic coi , latex and lambswool matt ess” and a “ evitalising all-in-one body wash” — miles away f om the utilita ianism of Japanese capsule inns, but thei existence is simila ly g ounded in ﬁlling a p eviously unadd essed need. Ku okawa would most likely app ove. Back at the Capsule Inn kihaba a, my capsule was on the seventh ﬂoo , which was i elevant since eve y ﬂoo looked the same, as did eve y capsule. nd not just eve y capsule in this hotel. t othe capsule inns, f om Tokyo to Osaka to Kyoto, while the size and style of the baths and othe public a eas va y widely, the capsules themselves a e always exactly the same: two mete s deep, one mete wide, and one mete tall, containing a matt ess and a pillow; a television in the uppe ight co ne ; a cont ol panel fo the TV, adio, ala m clock, and lights; a mi o and a small shelf; and a heavy-woven cu tain to seal you oﬀ f om the hallway. The featu es a e molded plastic, the cont ol panel analog. No fancy ﬂat sc een o Wi-Fi he e, just nine channels of te est ial TV and a pay-pe -view box fo po n. The Capsule Inn kihaba a opened yea s ago, but the feel of the pods is even ea lie , ve y s o late s, evoking the spa e lines of Ee o a nio’s Ball Chai o Matti Suu onen’s Futu o House. The capsules pa tially sha e in this et o-futu ist aesthetic of ﬁbe glass optimism, but they’ e THE JAPANESE POD HOTELS' STUBBORN too esolutely functional to be camp, and still too useful to be an histo ical punch line. FUNCTIONALITY YANKS THEM OUT OF The next mo ning, a e a su p isingly comfo tTHE TEMPORAL CONTINUUM OF DESIGN able sleep, I tou ed kihaba a’s f antic and eno mous shops stuffed with thousands of digital ALTOGETHER AND RENDERS THEM TIMELESS. came as, MP playe s, and mobile phones all chasing each othe into ea ly obsolescence. They pulsed with anime’s hype kinetic blending of the apocalyptic and the ado able, and with the biza e but enti ely inevitable spectacle of hentai (animated po n). Capsule hotels don’t belong to this ove -caﬀeinated and ove sexed pu suit of the futu e any mo e than they do to the quaint (and e oneous) p edictions of et o-futu ism. Instead, they have simply become pa t of the quotidian Japanese p esent. Thei stubbo n functionality yanks them out of the tempo al continuum of design altogethe and ende s them timeless, in the way of Southweste n inte state motels o New England bed-and-b eakfasts. But it’s tough to ma ket timelessness when the hotel in question was built just last yea . What otel, easyHotel, and The Pod Hotel have bo owed instead is a futu istic sense of eﬃciency, convenience, and qui kiness, as well as a healthy dose of Japanamania, o what might be mo e app op iately called Japanese kitsch (small, int icate, cute, t endy!). e the wo ld-conque ing success of the iPod, even the wo d “pod” itself is now a stand-in fo “designed,” with its associations of ound-edged sleekness and ease of use. et whateve thei initial successes, it’s doubtful these hotels o thei followe s will eve match the ubiquity and longevity of Japan’s o iginals. With the pa tial exception of the otels, they a e actually just familia concepts d essed up in modula clothing, as vulne able to the ﬁckle tastes of the global t avele as anything else cooked up in a co po ate boa d oom. e wading th ough the ma keting hype of the newe va iations, visiting the ﬁ st gene ation of capsule hotels eminds us that design can be — and pe haps should p ima ily be — thought of as p oblem-solving. But this does not cheapen the p ofession; it exalts it. To se ve a need, to answe a question in as elegant and economical a way as possible — what could be so bad about that? The lobby (above) and outdoor garden of The Pod Hotel, a boutique-style spot with “pods” the size of small Manhattan studio apartments. 50 CITY TY

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 56

City Issue 56 Contents Letter from City: Re: Design Our Friends: The Faces Behind the Stories Action: What's New, What's Hot, What's Now Wanted: Olympic Bound? Button Up City Moment: The Writing’s on the Wall How We Live: Concrete Jungle Fast Food: Bites of Spring The Amused Bouche: Blueprint Special In Rouge: Hero Worship Fashion: Welcome to the Boys’ Club Travel: My Pod Architecture: Out of the Blue Design: Home Remedies Tokyo Rising Zen and the Art of Catholicism Think Big Face Value Runaways Intimate Relations Where to Buy It: Store Locations Icon: The Infinity Pool

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