CitizenM – Schiphol Airport

The first CitizenM hotel, designed by Dutch architects Concrete, represents a significant step towards a new generation of hotels. The most striking feature is the totality of its realisation. The concept of stacking container-sized rooms one on top of the other is nothing new, but in delivering the first of a chain of hotels promising “affordable luxury” for today’s “mobile citizen”, the CITIZENM team have created a hotel which is radically different, commercially viable, operationally successful and at the same time, fun for its guests.

The extent of joined-up thinking is seen in the attention paid to the branding by communications agency KesselsKramer. There is a continuity that runs through the whole marketing approach, from the booking and automated check-in / check-out interfaces, to the tongue-in-cheek texts on the shampoo and body wash dispensers.
The success of this holistic approach was made clear when the hotel won not only the European Hotel Design of the Year at the recent European Hotel Design Awards but also three other categories - Innovation, Technology and Graphic Design.

The hotel is a large box between a flyover and the apron at Schipol airport – a convenient if inauspicious location. The container-sized rooms are constructed off-site at CitizenM’s own factory just outside of Rotterdam. In full swing the factory can produce one unit every two hours. Control over the production process allows consistency of quality; the rooms are delivered to site complete with bed linen, towels and furniture. Michael Levie, CEO, estimates construction costs are some 30-40% less than a budget or mid-ranged hotel room. Delivered to site by lorry, the units are then winched into place to hang off either side of a central corridor in a typical hotel layout. In keeping with the democratic nature of the brand, there is only one guestroom category at CitizenM, small. There are however two other container designs, one being for the emergency staircases, the other combining the lift shafts and storage areas.

At 14m2 the rooms are compact but cleverly designed. Two circular columns dominate the whiteness. One is home to the WC, the other the shower. Curved plastic doors (translucent for the WC) slide in the recessed grooves moulded into the discs of white Corian™ flooring. “The columns allow guests to see the total volume of the room straight away”, explains project architect Jeroen Vester. They also avoid wasting valuable space with a mini “corridor”.

At the end of the room is a large bed up against a floor-to-ceiling window. The bed is higher than normal making space for a suitcase drawer underneath. Other storage space is limited to hangers on chrome rails and hooks; ample for the typical short-stay guest. The housekeeping challenge of making a bed that has three enclosed sides has been overcome by Concrete’s use of a hinged-mattress arrangement that allows maids to pull the bed up using the fitted sheet, and click it in place before pushing it back down to stretch the newly fitted sheet. A pillow-top mattress cover and Frette linen tell you all you need to know about luxury applied cleverly to the area of a room with the most haptic exposure.

The window’s outside face is fixed at a different angle in each unit to provide some element of difference in what would otherwise be a bland façade. Apart from the effective soundproofed double-glazing necessitated by the location the windows also incorporate automated Venetian and blackout blinds. Other insulation comes from the slab concrete floors and twin 50mm layers of thermal and sound insulation in the walls, which also house the heating.

More clever ideas follow. The shower only operates when the doors are totally shut. Ventilation is through two outlets. A neat adaptation of the cistern plumbing allows airflow out through the water flush inlet of the toilet bowl. This accounts for 30% of the circulation; the remaining 70% is moved through the ceiling recess above the shower.

A handheld device controls the Philips Ambient Experience system that acts as a one-stop shop for customising coloured light settings, temperature, the TV and the blinds. Use of the touchscreen pad is simplicity itself although there are number of pre-defined mood settings. Guests’ choice of settings is remembered by a room keycard that also includes an RFID chip.

The mobile citizen generation of guests which CitizenM is aimed at will enjoy the connectivity, both virtual and physical, that the open-plan public spaces offer. CanteenM comprises a central bar / coffee station that also overlooks the entrance area of the hotel and the automated check-in terminals. Behind are chiller cabinets with options from sushi to sandwiches available on a self-serve basis for consumption at the adjacent high tables.

The lounge effectively stretches the length of the building and is subdivided into smaller sections by Concrete-designed bookshelves. Different areas have different uses – eating, meeting, relaxing and reading – all of which serve to beautifully display products from each of Vitra’s three divisions – Public, Office and Home.

The roll-out of the brand is already underway with the second hotel due to open in central Amsterdam in early 2009, and a further site in Glasgow opening later in the year. Additional sites are currently being acquired in cities such as London, Berlin, Barcelona and Prague, with openings expected in 2010. Indeed, given its construction technique one would expect the roll-out of CitizenM to be faster than that of other nascent hotel brands. As founder Rattan Chadha points out, “We did not spend four years designing one hotel.” Onsite construction time is estimated at 8-10 months. As always, the challenge is to find the right sites.

DESIGN DETAILS

• The hotel’s 230 rooms, each measuring 14m2, are all prefabricated in CitizenM’s own factory and transported on the back of trucks to the site. The rooms arrive on site completely furnished, including even the towels. The factory can produce 25 rooms per week. The modules consist of steel frames, precast concrete floors, fire-protective walls and a wall-to-wall window.

• The rooms are then hoisted into place. The ground floor comprises a steel frame with a concrete slab on top. The room modules are then directly hoisted off the truck and stacked on the building. It takes three weeks to allocate 200 rooms. There is no need for additional cladding of the glass facades – only a sealing strip is placed between the window frames.

• The building is a large black metal box, dominated by the pushed out big glass windows of the rooms. The various depths of the aluminum frames and angled glass give an individual twist to the otherwise clean-cut, rigid façade.

• The other major embellishments to the façade are two huge art works, printed on PVC mesh fabric.

• The works are made by a talented local artist. As CitizenM expands, within a few years it is anticipated the artworks will travel from one hotel façade to another.

• At Schiphol, the final building features five floors of bedrooms stacked above the ground floor lobby and lounge areas. In addition to the bedrooms, modules housing the lifts and fire exits are used to bookend the building.

• The large glass windows on the ground floor face inwards, with a red coloured glass box marking the entrance. A roof construction of folded steel plates creates a covered walkway from the terminal exit to the hotel entrance. PowerLED floorlamps light the inner ceiling of the silver coloured steel and create a pathway to the hotel entrance.

• Althought many aspects of CITIZENM are automated, the hotel takes its beverages seriously. Coffee is prepared and served by in-house baristas. In the evening, the bar offers fine spirits, cocktails, champagne and fresh draught beer. KesselKramer’s branding is consistent throughout, from to the coffee cups to the complimentary soaps in the rooms.

• CanteenM offers a 24-hour choice of signature sandwiches, salads and sushi, dispensed from chiller cabinets, and warm dishes for guests to heat up themselves.

• At the self check-in kiosks guests can pull-up their online booking and enter personal preferences covering lighting, music, temperature and wake-up call. By the time the machine has programmed a personal RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Data) card, the guest’s room has been adjusted to their liking.

• Thanks to CITIZENM’s partnership with Vitra, the lounge areas provide a showcase for a wide range of furniture, from contemporary statement pieces to Eames design classics. A variety of design objects and books are displayed on shelves designed by Concrete.

• One user-friendly handheld device controls the Philips Ambient Entertainment System allowing guests to customise light settings, temperature, the TV and the blinds, or choose from a variety of preset ‘mood’ settings.  Guests can keep their keycard (which doubles as a luggage tag) and it will store the settings to be remembered and reproduced on the guest’s next visit.

• CanteenM features communal seating – again from Vitra – and a huge wall mural of a crowd of people waving from a beach. Free WiFi is available throughout the hotel. 

WORDS: Guy Dittrich & Matt Turner

PHOTOGRAPHY:  © Richard Powers

CITIZENM Amsterdam Airport
Janplezierweg 2
1118 BB Schiphol, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
www.citizenm.com

Rooms:   230 guestrooms
Food:    CanteenM
Facilities:    Vitra-furnished lounge