sleeping around: mobile shipping container hotel

‘sleeping around’ by geoffrey stampaert, didier opdebeeck, and ellen wezenbeek,  various locations images © frederick herregodsall images courtesy of sleeping around

partners geoffrey stampaert, didier opdebeeck, and ellen wezenbeek are the latest entrepreneurs to elevate the status of shipping containers from a 1950’s stock steel crate, to a viable structural framework for architectural programs. mr.stampaert, also a restaurateur in addition to an experienced hotelier, is expanding the ideas of luxury, design, adventure, and comfort with ‘sleeping around’, a pop-up hotel the travels the globe according to user-input demand. ‘pop-up’ as a concept has long been applied to a range of events, exhibits and the like and denotes the temporary presence of a relevant, usually cultural, showcase. the fleeting nature of ‘pop-up’ phenomena often calls to mind exclusive, often surprising, specialized concept structures. ‘sleeping around’ uses these qualities to offer a range of traveling experiences that employ an effective supply-and-demand model; the shipping containers can take refuge in the countryside or thrive in a stimulating city center.

the crux of the business model is that visitors can request a site with something that static architecture may not be able to offer– namely, unique views or fantastic hidden locales. the hotel, for example, has spent some weeks on the banks of the scheldt in antwerp with a view of st anna’s beach, and is now on the move. in the five months it has been open, ‘sleeping around’ hotel has traveled to three locations and successfully accommodated over one hundred visitors. travelers can check back periodically to see if the hotel has moved to an area of interest and enter the location into a GPS device to find it. this mobile hotel can be set up and fully functional within five hours of arriving at a location.

an interior view of a roomimages © frederick herregods

an interior view of the breakfast areaimages © frederick herregods

at night, this pod also acts as a lounge area images © frederick herregods

a compact and variable design allows for the best possible views of any given locationimages © frederick herregods

the potential to scale the project up is mainly due to the availability and architecture of shipping containersimages © frederick herregods

the hotel is comprised of seven shipping containers, four of them rooms, acting as a community of pods. the other ‘rooms’ are a dedicated breakfast and lounge area, a sauna and a kitchen. each twenty foot room container is complete with a bed, en-suite bathroom and shower, iPod docking station and HVAC system. the open side of the containers are complete with sliding glass doors. shipping containers are ubiquitous on ports around the world, seeing as how shipping them back empty is very unprofitable. while the used pods can be scrapped for their steel, they have excellent architectural elements and present an opportunity for designers to be ecologically responsible. ‘sleeping around’ hotel has it’s own water system and the potential to use solar or wind energy, making it truly self-sufficient and sustainable building. 

images © frederick herregods

shipping container is the architectural framework of what has been named a ‘pop-up’ hotelimages © frederick herregods

the rooms enliven their sites by allowing guests to stay in possibly the most central and stimulating areas of a cityimages © frederick herregods

a night view of one of the comfortable roomsimages © frederick herregods

each room has meticulously designed interiorsimages © frederick herregods

images © frederick herregods

before the transformationimages © frederick herregods

images © frederick herregods

each container is fitted with sliding glass doorsimages © frederick herregods

images © frederick herregods

the mobile hotel has also been booked en masse for private eventsimages © frederick herregods

fast and flexible set up make the shipping container rooms ideal for events images © frederick herregods

project info:

country: antwerp 2012- location variable destination of use: commercial/hotel collaborators: geoffrey stampaert (hotel les nuits) , didier opdebeeck (marketing map), and ellen wezenbeek (huis happaert)