TOURBUS HOTEL
European Bus Tour -
Between Venice and Munich

New Hotels for Global Nomads
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NYC 2002

Updated for 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale
September 12-November 7, 2004

TourBus Hotel, a prototype structure for the accommodation of the bus tour, situates itself at the junction of coming and going. What if the logistics of the bus tour and the complex social and visual mechanisms of the tour bus were the catalysts for a new building type? Acting as a speculative prototype, the TourBus Hotel plugs into the existing routes of European bus tours, located opportunistically on the highways between major tourist sites. Like an automotive service stop, the hotel is accessible from both directions of traffic, serving bus routes running in opposite directions simultaneously. The functions of the hotel are structured according to this directional split coming from Venice and going to Munich, for example, and vice versa.