Before a hotel welcomes its first guest, hundreds of design decisions must come together. At WE Hotel EXPO Prague, the project team explored those decisions by starting with a single hotel room prototype.
The project offers an example of modular hotel construction at a substantial scale, combining repeatable guest rooms with shared spaces designed for gathering.
A hotel room prototype before production
According to KOMA Modular, the manufacturer first produced a prototype room so the investor and architects could refine construction, technical and interior details before serial production began.
The completed four-storey hotel comprises 160 modules and provides 105 guest rooms. KOMA credits the architectural design to No Limits Design. Larger modules were used to create the restaurant’s more open interior.
KOMA reports a three-month assembly period within an overall twelve-month project programme, including preparation. Assembly on site represents one stage of the complete delivery process.
Modular hotel design starts with the guest
For Canadian architects and developers, the prototype offers a practical idea: review one complete room before manufacturing the rest.
That review could consider the entrance, furniture arrangement, lighting, storage and access for maintenance. It creates an opportunity to assess how the space feels and functions alongside the details needed to build it.
The restaurant adds another lesson for modular hotel design. Repeated rooms and larger shared spaces can call for different architectural responses within the same building.
Volumetric modular construction: thinking in complete spaces
Volumetric modular construction uses three-dimensional building units manufactured off site and connected at their destination.
For a hotel brief, this approach invites the design team to consider the guest room as both an occupied space and a coordinated building unit. The wider modular architecture must also bring those rooms together with circulation, entrances and shared facilities.
What this means for modular construction in Canada
At AI Group, our 8 × 20 ft module provides a starting point for exploring these principles at a different scale.
A useful first exercise is to test a proposed layout within that footprint, considering wall thicknesses, circulation, furniture and services. Where a brief calls for more space, the design team can investigate combining modules, subject to structural and connection design.
WE Hotel EXPO Prague uses its own modular system and dimensions. Its relevance for Canadian project teams lies in the process: develop a repeatable space, review it carefully, and coordinate it with the wider building.
Project credit: KOMA Modular; architectural design: No Limits Design.
Source: KOMA Modular — WE Hotel EXPO Prague
