Biker's Hotel

Project idea

In recent years, the hungarian town, Pannonhalma has been striving to establish its own identity within the spectrum of alternative tourism. The town's tourism heavily relies on the Pannonhalma Archabbey and other religious heritage, it can be sensed that the town would want to expand its tourism palette, especially in the direction of alternative tourism. My interest was sparked by the cycling route connecting Győr and Veszprém, as well as the tourism developing around it, and I based my diploma project on this sector of the town’s tourism with interviews conducted with local residents, the town architect and the tourism developers. My goal was to design an alternative accommodation that could serve as a destination for both locals and visitors alike.

Project description

My solution is an alternative hotel building, which can be a destination for both locals and visitors as well. I interpret the yards I created with my building's shape as meeting points for the two groups in the form of town events, shows or events planned for tourists that the locals can enjoy as well beside other functions as park, bike repair point etc. From the interviews I discovered the shortage of the local based restaurant, where townpeople can celebrate events like weddings or football games, that's why I designed the hotel's restaurant a bit bigger to open it for the locals as well. Moreover, the hotel has an event venue as well that the town can use too. The hotel's rooms are on the top 2 floors looking at the town in different angles, because I followed the terrain's attributes. It was my choice to turb my building in the direction of the town, giving representation not just the Abbey, but the town itself. For the bike tourism, I placed a bike repair service point, a bike shop and a rest point for those, who only stays there for a few hours to rest.

Technical information

The building has a concrete structure, brick facade and wooden pillars to hold the restaurant's roof and along the rooms, the terrace's railing attaches to them. I chose these materials to bring the hotel's identity to the same level as the town's: materials that remind you of the biking community, the atmosphere of a small town's beauty.
One part of the building is underground, that's why I designed a light well along the northen facade for light and ventilation reasons.
All the pavement I use on the site is either pervious concrete or gravel, letting the rain water get underground.