CITY Issue 56

TRAVEL MY POD A new wave of colorfully packaged capsule hotels in Europe and America are attempting to capture the spirit of Tokyo’s famous sleeping pods. But as Brian DeLeeuw discovered on a recent visit to Japan, slick new concepts often pale against the tried and tested simplicity of these utilitarian design classics. I t’s a.m. in Tokyo, and the conﬁ nes of my sleeping pod’s two cubic mete s a e getting inc easingly stuﬀy. Out in the hallway, on the othe side of the woven mat moonlighting as a doo , a so cho us of sno es ma ks the minutes; at least the guest in the pod below me has tu ned oﬀ his television. I’ve kept mine on, though, and attempt to follow a samu ai-themed soap ope a at low volume while I ﬁddle with the pod’s p oto-digital ala m clock. It’s built into the modula plastic molding along with the TV and adio dials, but not, unfo tunately, any tempe atu e cont ols. Up-to-the-second elect onics a e not the specialty of the Capsule Inn kihaba a. Like all Japanese capsule hotels, it is o ganized a ound the singula function of delive ing an economical, convenient, and easonably comfo table night’s est — a pu e example of utilita ian hotel design is diﬃcult to ﬁ nd. nd t ue to this aison d’êt e, just minutes late , a e the shogunate has been paciﬁed and my ala m clock set, I d i oﬀ to my own womb-like sleep. Okay, so it wasn’t exactly a night in a sleek boutique hotel o the guest oom of a Philippe Sta ck condo. But, fo one night at least, I needed a b eak f om the eve -enc oaching notion of design as luxu y — a vague but f equently expensive concept that “lifestyle” companies constantly th ow at us. Design has become a ma keting pitch, a concept o en independent f om the object actually being designed. Such is the case with the cu ent p olife ation of capsule hotels in the United States and Eu ope. otel’s “cabins,” tucked inside Heath ow and Gatwick ai po ts, oﬀe “eve ything you would expect f om a luxu y hotel in a small space,” says the company’s ma keting depa tment. EasyHotel is metastasizing th ough England, Switze land, and Hunga y, an o ange-and-white epiof wo kaday genius fa emoved f om the ubiquitous inte national boutique demic of cheap-and-chee ful t endiness. new endeavo in Manhattan calls hotel hype. The disjunction between my p econceptions and eality suggests itself The Pod Hotel, though some units measu e up to squa e feet, the size that although Japan’s capsule hotels have not changed, ou unde standing of of a small New o k City studio apa tment. What do these inte p etations of the place of design in mode n u ban cultu e ce tainly has. the capsule concept actually sha e with thei Japanese p ecu so s, those peThis pa ticula capsule inn, located in kiennial favo ites of ove wo ked o ineb iated salahaba a, Tokyo’s nexus of ota u cultu e (what Wilymen that have existed p actically unchanged liam Gibson once called the “passionate obsessive”: (and unchallenged) fo almost yea s? My ecent I ENVISIONED A mo e conce ned with the accumulation of data than night at the Capsule Inn kihaba a was an attempt HIGH-CONCEPT SLICE of objects), oﬀe s units tucked inside ﬂoo s of to ﬁ nd out. OF THE AUTOMATED, a nondesc ipt conc ete building next to a highway Befo e visiting, I envisioned a high-concept ove pass. The m x m x m capsules a e stacked slice of the automated, efficient futu e — the — EFFICIENT FUTURE two-high along tight ows, like ﬁbe glass chicken techno Tokyo of neon ove load and SIMO, the THE TECHNO TOKYO coops. The dominant metapho fo each capsule is a dancing obot. O , at the ve y least, a dated, et oOF NEON OVERLOAD neonatal incubation unit, o maybe a mic owave futu istic attempt at the same. Instead, I found the oven. t ﬁ st glance, the e is something g imly insticapsule hotel to be so ef eshingly utilita ian, and AND ASIMO, THE tutional o even totalita ian about the pods, a so t the expe ience of staying in one so sublimely munDANCING ROBOT of bland B ave Ne Wo ld unifo mity f om which dane, that I’m convinced its design is an example 48 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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