Sleeping in the Sewer

I’m sure you’ve experienced this in the past that you arrive at a hotel and it looks like sewer. Don’t let me digress, though, it’s not dodgy hotels that I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is green hotels that are building their rooms from salvaged architectural materials – in this particular case – large-diametre sewege pipes.

A while ago there was a project called Dasparkhotel in Austria. It involved free-standing sections of sewer pipes with ends closed with plywood. A round skylight window was bored in the body of the pipe. It still keeps attracting tourists.

But now there’s a new project in the pipeline, if you pardon the pun. 3arc architecture studio has built this interesting leisure complex in Tepostlan, Mexico. It’s called, quite appropriately, TuboHotel and it has several free-standing pipe-rooms and several clustered in threes.

Each room contains a cosy double bed and a small table. Unlilke the Austrian project, the Mexican hotel has no skylights – instead they’re employing the large round opening to create a glass wall. Privacy is ensured by a very simple thing – a curtain!

These sewer pipes are very big and they’re made in short convenient sections. They come in 11.5 feet length and 8 feet diametre. The reality is that surplus or discarded pipes are simply crushed to make rubble. Instead they could be reused in a creative way. Can these be found in architectural salvage yards in Britain? I very much doubt, but if you come across one, don’t crush it – a pipe like this would also make a great garden studio.