London, Milan... and Balquhidder
‘Pod’plan for hotel
The village of Balquhidder could soon be home to an award-winning three-storey ‘pod’ previously to be seen in the likes of London and Milan.
Guests at the award winning Monachyle Mhor Hotel at Balquhidder could be spending their nights in the innovative building, snapped up on eBay after it toured Europe.
Hotel owner Tom Lewis has submitted a planning application to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park for the modular building which he proposes to site within the hotel grounds.
The self-contained wooden shell is flexible and adaptable for different locations, climate conditions and terrains and can be used as holiday cabin, a hideaway, treehouse or even a temporary habitation for research.
One of his clients, Iain Williamson, secured the pod after submitting a winning bid of £7900 on the auction site, beating 21 other bidders. Delivery costs were around £1400 and installation will be an estimated £8000.
The three-storey structure was auctioned as part of the 2018 London Design Festival and prior to being on display in London was exhibited in the Salone Salone del Mobile, in Parco Sempione, Milano, in April 2017, and at Ljubljana Castle in summer 2017.
The ‘Living Unit’, designed by Slovenian architects OFIS, was donated to the Architecture Foundation by London-based engineers AKT II and was auctioned to raise funds to support The Architecture Foundation’s work.
In his submission to national park planners, Mr Lewis said: “The application is for the relocation of an existing, high profile exhibition building that has toured various European countries in 2018, showcasing a prototype for compact dwellings.
“The building and all its fittings was bought from an online auction site and the intention is to re-erect it at Monachyle Mhor hotel and use it as a hotel bedroom for 18-24 months before demounting it and moving it to another site.
“The building has been designed specifically to be portable and breaks down into three separate elements that can be easily transported by a standard sized lorry.
“The building is being adapted to become a hotel room for Monachyle Mhor Hotel where it will be let to paying guests as well as used for promotional and corporate activities.”
The stacked pods are 7.2 metres high and are 2.4 metres wide. The internal floor area is 28.8m2 and the outside is clad in a narrow, black painted timber.
The windows are frameless and there is almost no external detailing - the building is therefore almost completely black and will therefore be very hard to discern against the wooded backdrop where we are proposing to place it. The cabin can grounded either by steel anchors or removable concrete cubes.”
The basic unit also has a flexible interior and can be inhabited by two people with the option to install a bathroom and kitchenette, however the auctioned modular building features three basic units, which can be combined together and includes two bedrooms, a kitchenette, a toilet and sink and living area.
Mr Lewis told the Observer this week he was excited at the prospect of siting the building at the hotel.
“It’s really cool,” he said. “We know the guy who won it really well and work with him. What we are trying to do is work with architects and designers and show that good design is really important and can be an asset in the right place in these sort of settings.
“We want to surprise people.”