Our prototype hotel room for MiTek’s modular initiative reflects our passionate belief that modular technology should serve architectural design, not supersede it. Creativity and formal expression are still possible within the parameters of factory production; efficiency does not preclude beauty.
Face Value
The module's interior features stepped custom millwork that echoes the façade design, custom furnishings, and voice-activated floor-to-ceiling windows. Yes, it’s all compatible with factory production and the innovative modular system we created with MiTek that sets a new standard for efficiency. And yes, it’s simply beautiful.
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The challenge with this Manhattan project was as simple as it was daunting: build a modular hotel in one of the most tightly packed cities in the world—and make sure it doesn’t look “modular.”
Because of our modular experience and our advanced digital capacities, DF&A can design complex geometrical architectural elements and shepherd them through digital fabrication. That means we can create whatever a project calls for both structurally and aesthetically, whether it’s a hyperbolic curved Corian canopy or a brass screenwall that promotes both visibility and privacy. We have the skill, the experience, and the sense of unlimited creative potential that make all things possible.
As architects, we pride ourselves on starting new projects without preconceived designs or solutions. But when we began building modular buildings, we realized that, with the construction methodology in its (relative) infancy, there was both a need and an opportunity to innovate at a systemic level, propelling forward both our own modular work and the industry as a whole. Now, in addition to setting standards in modular project design—with complex, record-breaking high rises whose designs belie their modularity—DF&A invents processes and products that transform the way modular buildings are built.