Client: Hotel Solutions Partnership

Location: La Gomera, Canary Islands

Status: Concept

Brief

The second-smallest of the seven Canary Islands, near-circular and with a diameter of only 25 kilometres, La Gomera feels like the island that time forgot. A drive through soaring ravines and sleepy mountain villages down to deserted rocky beaches can be made without encountering a single other vehicle The rituals of rural life playing out along the wayside are as though from another era. There is no indigenous construction skills save that in the provision of traditional homes, so a 340-bed hotel must be manufactured off site, transported and dropped in place. The solution is an amalgam between a standardised ISO 9001 container, replete with all servicing installed and tested, with a series of additional components delivered in an identical manner but then assembled in kit form. This can be built 60% cheaper than using local labour and standard imported materials.