Dasparkhotel
Ottensheim, Austria
A unique opportunity to stay the night in retrofitted sections of sewer pipe.
FOR MOST TRAVELERS, STAYING OVERNIGHT in a sewer pipe sounds like just about the worst possible accommodations imaginable—more like a trip gone wrong than an enlightening and satisfying home away from home.
Dasparkhotel aims to change all of that. The proprietors of this hotel have created one of the most unique and thoughtful lodgings in the world, consisting of several individual rooms constructed out of repurposed metropolitan drainage pipes.
Industrial drainage pipes are strong and incredibly long-lasting. Unfortunately, that usually means that when they are discarded, they last many decades beyond their actual use, in scrapyards, landfills, or even on the side of the road in some cases. They’re usually buried underground and never really considered by the civilians traveling along the roads and sidewalks they’re built beneath and meant to drain.
By utilizing some of these hidden yet structurally sound symbols of civilization’s subterranean machinations, dasparkhotel has not only discovered a sustainable and cheap means of launching a business venture, but they also offer travelers a chance to experience a part of society they never see or even think about.
True to the mission statement of most green initiatives, dasparkhotel can get people to think about the world we live in, seen and unseen, in an entirely new way. For some, perhaps it’s guilt about the massive orchestration and resources required to simply sustain our way of life; for others, it might be a rare opportunity to appreciate all of the everyday marvels that go misunderstood and underappreciated.
For most, however, dasparkhotel is simple: a place for unique and thought-provoking fun. With each cramped-yet-cozy room, complete with bed, shelving, and a skylight, one gets to say they’ve been in a place they’ve never been before, and hopefully (except for dasparkhotel itself), they won’t ever be again.
