Office by day, bedroom by night

This hotel on the outskirts of Helsinki has rooms that double as bedrooms by night and offices by day.

For many people, hotel rooms are the perfect way to relax after an exotic trip, a holiday or even a long business meeting. Nowadays, however, time spent in a hotel room is not only for relaxation but also for working efficiently. In response to the difficulties caused by the coronavirus, there is a growing tendency in the hotel industry to offer facilities where you can work without the distractions and worries of home. Such is the case with VALO Hotel & Work, which has made it a priority to provide a solution for remote workers and digital nomads as well as more traditional hotel guests.

The concept is a joint brainchild of Minna Hurme, the hotel’s design manager, Workplace Oy, an office design specialist, Fyra interior design studio and SSA Construction. Guest rooms have been designed that can easily be converted from typical hotel rooms into office spaces suitable for several people. Thus, guests are more likely to use each space 24 hours a day. ”Rather than having a hotel empty during the day and an office empty at night and on weekends, VALO combines the two functions in one space,” says the hotel staff.

The 18,000 square metre building has 422 multifunctional rooms, ranging in size from twelve to twenty-nine square metres. In order to make the concept work, the rooms can be easily transformed, not only when in use, but also during the cleaning process. Thus, the designers have created flexible, modular furnishings: beds and desks are connected to a digital platform that can be folded down thanks to a mechanical system operated by an app, and sofas can be easily hidden away. The lighting and temperature can also be controlled along different modes to ensure both comfort and functionality. ”The result is a space that is visually neither a hotel nor an office, but something completely new,” VALO emphasized.

Lucky for us, we don’t have to go far to have the same experience: several hotels in Budapest have joined the list of office hotels. One such example is the Hotel Rum, previously featured in the columns of Hype&Hyper.

Source: Dezeen

• architecture
• hotel
• finnish