Multi Lab Hotel

Multi Lab / BRAUN and the BRAUN Hotel

Year: 2019
Category: Academic Project
Type: Architecture Design
Advisor: Jianguang Zhuo 
My Role: Individual work
Location: Intersection of Qingnian Road and Qianfeng Road, Tainan City
Area: 3487 m2
BCR: 60%
FAR: 250% (assumption)

About

The plan was to merge the hotel with the brand, Braun. Following this concept of Braun, the hotel would provide travelers to experience Braun’s lifestyle, with a flagship storefront, a hairdressing store, a cafe, and BRAUN-style rooms, becoming a user-centric service laboratory. Therefore, the hotel was called Multi-Lab.

Concept

The whole picture was started with the branding, BRAUN. I first did research on the core concept of its product design. Braun cared A LOT for their users. For example, designers in the lab of shavers would conduct experiments under different levels of humidity and temperature to know how users can use shavers easily in their bathrooms.

Good design is simple, useful, and built to last.

–BRAUN’s website

A Hotel is an establishment offering lodgings to travelers and always focuses on customer service. As to BRAUN, it always focuses on users. The concept then started following the design concept of BRAUN to optimize the user experience for visitors.

The planning also followed the concept of minimalism, similar to BRAUN. The shape was smoothly curved like a flattened arch. One was bigger and the other one was smaller. Both shapes were formed by the north-south axle, as simple as possible.

Brand Planning

The brand: BRAUN

The project was designed as labs for users to experience BRAUN’s lifestyle while staying at the hotel. It would motivate the communication between users and designers for further improvement. The planning was as below:

  1. Flagship Shop (1F): branding the image and establishing its exhibition.
  2. Hair Salon (2F): Targeting asians for designing the best hairstyles
  3. BRAUN Cafe Lab (3F): DIY afternoon tea by using BRAUN kitchen products
  4. Open Space and Children Area (4F): Engaging local activities with visitors and residents to help promote the cultural stories and issues.
2f Plan & 3F Plan
Hotel Operation Plan

The design would bring BRAUN products and styles into the hotel. Travelers would be provided with a set of BRAUN products including shavers and body care. The public space for customers would be settled with a BRAUN-style kitchen and even products to experience and optimize the hospitality.

  1. Intelligence Management System including Setting Self-Service kiosk in the lobby to reduce the labor cost and save check-in time for customers, Smart Phone of Each Room, Info Desk, and Auto Baggage Deposit.
  2. BRAUN branding Cooperation to design minimalist-style rooms
  3. Ancillary Space and Equipment including mini bars, shared space, shared kitchen, and laundry room
  4. Open labs mentioned above in the branding planning
4F plan & 5F plan

Design Details

The whole project contained three sites. To build a complete tourist area, Site A and Site C were redesigned into the hostel, residence, studio, office, and shopping mall. The multi-lab hotel was designed to be constructed on Site B, called the site in the following content.

The north of the site was the historical site, the former Tainan Magistrate Residence, and green idle land. Moreover, the main train station was in the north direction along Quanfeng Rd. Regrading the two factors, visitors would highly possible to come from the north side and therefore the main entrance of the hotel was set to face the north.

On the ground floor, the space was divided into several parts including a public square, the exhibition, a lane, and stores. Firstly, the exhibition could be extended to the outside square for flexible planning. It also faced a studio located at Site A for engaging startups and interactions with different perspectives. Secondly, the lane was designed along with the alley from east to west. In this way, residents would be able to connect to others and interact with more activities.

The site plan

In addition, the slide of the concept was transformed into the large stairs to bring people to the upper floors, such as the hair salon and cafe. It would also become the main image of the hotel to promote its appearance for the community.

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