Capsule Hotels

ShelvesA single shelf beside the shared lounge holds magazines and city guides that guests leave behind or pick up on their way out. Sleeping space in this building is a capsule, so anything read here is read out in the common area rather than in the berth itself.

Who put them thereWhat sits on the shelf accumulates from guests and from whatever the front desk chooses to put out, and the house does not present it as anything more organised than that. It shifts constantly, because the turnover of people through this building is very quick indeed.

What the room doesThe lounge is the only room in the building with proper chairs in it, and it takes the pressure off the sleeping floors. People use it in the hour before bed and again early, when the capsules empty out.

ShelvesPrinted matter here stands in a rack near the entrance to the floor, where guests pass on their way in and out. It is press and local paper rather than books, and it belongs to the doorway rather than to any room set aside for sitting.

Who put them thereThe rack is stocked by the house from ordinary distribution, and there is no principle behind what appears in it beyond availability. Guests add to it and take from it, so the contents on a given evening are partly the work of the previous night’s occupants.

What the room doesThe floor is arranged around a corridor of cabins with shared washing rooms at one end, and the doorway is the only place on it where people stop. Reading happens there, standing up, or else it is carried into the cabin.

ShelvesBooks occupy a corner of the shared room rather than a wall of it, and they sit at the height of the seating so that people reach across for them. The rest of the building is cabins, so this corner is where anything printed lives.

Who put them thereStock is maintained by the house, and what stands there has arrived over time rather than being brought in all at once. Guests leave things and the corner absorbs them, which is why it looks like a household shelf rather than a fitting ordered for a hotel.

What the room doesThe common room takes on all the functions that a cabin cannot: eating, waiting, charging a telephone, sitting up late with other people. It is busiest through the evening and stands nearly empty during the working day, when the building is left to itself.

ShelvesShelving on the ground floor is open to everyone staying in the building, and it stands in the shared area rather than on any of the sleeping floors above. Anyone can take something from it without asking, which is the point of putting it there.

Who put them thereThe house keeps it, and the published description treats the shelving as part of the shared facilities rather than as a holding with a character of its own. What is on it changes as guests leave things behind and staff tidy the run back into order.

What the room doesThe ground floor carries reception, seating and a place to eat, and the shelving sits inside that mixture rather than apart from it. It is a room that people cross on their way elsewhere, though a few of them sit down and stay.