Solar Winds Desert Hotel

The Solar Winds Desert Hotel is a conceptual design for a large (140 room) luxury eco hotel powered by the sun and the wind. The design symbolically evolved from thoughts about certain desert plants and how they function in a hot dry climate. The symbolic leaves of the Solar Winds Desert Hotel would shade various facilities at the base such as restaurants, a gym, a pool, a spa, retail spaces, offices, etc. These symbolic leaves (like the real plant) would generate power for the rest of the hotel through a coating on their surface made of paint-on solar cells. These solar cells (or photovoltaic paint on films) are currently under development and will allow any surface of a structure exposed to sunlight to generate electricity. The stem of the plant (in this interpretation) becomes the space in which the hotel rooms are located. At the top of the stem (or hotel) is mounted a large fully integrated vertical axis wind turbine, which would also generate large amounts of electrical energy for the structure. A large restaurant, bar, and observation deck would also be located at the top of the hotel. Various natural cooling strategies would be incorporated into the design of the hotel including the installation of earth pipes buried deep in the desert below the hotel. As the wind blows over the top of the center portion of the structure, earth cooled air from below is pulled up through the hotels interior space. In addition, all of the windows in the hotel are shaded with overhangs built into the structure. It is my hope that projects like this will help to demonstrate how the inclusion of alternative energy gathering strategies into the design of high end luxury facilities, can point the way toward a new and exciting esthetic, for a greener tomorrow.