This is the incredible "Hotel Unbalance", a slanted, picture frame of a building to be built on a cliff edge near the capital of Peru.
Designed by Madrid-based OOIIO Architecture firm, Hotel Unbalance is being built for a private client in Lima. "Sometimes architecture is about how a building can suggest and
'talk' with the observer, how its dimensions, location, shape, texture, reflections, etc. are able to transmit sensations,"
OOIIOO's director Joaquín Millán tells Wired.co.uk in an email. "This project is an experiment on that [...]."
The dramatic Lima landscape, as Millán describes it, was the inspiration for the design. Lima's Pacific cliffs are a well-known tourist attraction and OOIIOO wanted to find a way to play with that landscape without blocking it from view. They began to experiment with the different possible relationships between a large hotel and this "unique natural location".
The strongest idea, says Millán, "was this almost falling situation. [It] is like it makes you run to try and hold the building because it is falling down". In addition, the large gap in the centre frames the landscape, instead of obstructing it. "The main [construction] challenge is the structure. Not because of the building's stability -- it is not unstable at all, everything is an optic effect, an illusion -- the problem is the terrain," he says, noting that it will require a lot of work to prepare the cliff edge for construction.
China's CCTV Broadcasting Centre in Beijing, designed by Rem Koolhass and OMA with a similar gap in the middle of the building, influenced the work to some degree. "We admire Rem Koolhass [...] but our projects cannot be compared to his," he adds humbly. "We are still exploring and learning about architecture every day. He is [...] an acclaimed designer, we still have a lot to demonstrate."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
