I often harp on about cutting down on office space in my serviced office. Smaller desks, built in filing cabinets, hot desk systems…a constant attempt to create an almost space-shuttle type environment in which to work – because, space is money.
Now, I am the first to admit that it is possible to go overboard with this concept and it took a hotel to show me that.
Capsule hotels are unique accommodations developed in Japan. It usually costs from 2,500 yen to 4,500 yen per night. As they are cheap, mainly business men who couldn’t go home stay at capsule hotels.
Also, capsule hotels are popular among foreign travellers. In capsule hotels, each guest stays in a small sleeping space (capsule) which is about 3 feet by 4 feet by 6 feet. In a capsule, there is a TV, an alarm clock, a light, and so on. The open side of a capsule is shut by a curtain or a screen, and it is unlocked. To sleep well in capsule hotels, earplugs might be helpful.
A few feet from the flowing Danube River in Germany, we can find the Das Park Pipe hotel where rooms seem as cosy as they are tiny. Simplicity is the key word to these elegant designs that consist of large blank round concrete pipes on the exterior and minimally finished rooms on the inside. They are bigger than capsules, you can actually stand up in them (in the centre) and keep a suitcase inside.
At Scheveningen surf beach, Holland, you can stay the night in a converted oil platform rescue capsule for 60 euros. The room comes complete with a hammock.
But, back to serviced offices. Britain’s smallest office, with only 44sq ft of space, has gone on sale for £20,000. The office, nicknamed Tardis House, has just enough room for one desk and a chair. Built as a lavatory in the 1920s, the office in Truro, Cornwall, has been a police station and housed a number of businesses. It measures 7ft 5in (2.26m) by 5ft 11in (1.82m) by 6ft 6in (1.98m) high, and boasts ‘impressive natural lighting’ through a Perspex roof. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
