A Sci-Fi Hotel, Complete With An H.R. Giger Bar, Is Coming To The U.S.
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The next time you watch Ridley Scott’s classic Alien and think to yourself, “Man, I’d really like to get shithoused with the space jockey in a room that looks just like the one he was found in,” you might just be able to go and do just that (minus the actual space jockey). Marketing genius and all-around “guy who wants things to be awesome” Andy Davies is working with artist H.R. Giger to bring the U.S. a version of his famed Giger Bar, a potent potable paradise where all the furniture is designed by the artist himself, presumably during some LSD-fueled waltz through IKEA. That would be amazing enough, but Davies is also looking to fit this bar inside his high-concept Sci-Fi Hotel.
That’s right, it’ll be a hotel inspired by an entire genre of fiction. And you thought that one motel counted as sci-fi just because the clerk had three eyes and you didn’t know what that weird ooze was seeping out of the walls.
No half-assed notebook scribbling of an idea, Davies intends for his Sci-Fi Hotel to look like it came right out of a sci-fi novel, employing “an architectural and stylistic celebration of science fiction, a creative and technological showcase that features classic, retro and futuristic science-fiction interior design, art, books and movies in guestrooms and public spaces for a completely immersive experience.” At least that’s how he described it to Crave (via CNet.) The art will include one-of-a-kind artist commissions and media installations, while there will be on-demand viewing and gaming for all things genre based, plus a book and comic library. As you might imagine, there will be specialty food joints and probably a movie theater, as well as a retail section. If you thought you were paying too much for your novelty items before…
And then, of course, there is the bar, which sounds amazing in and of itself, even without a comic library. Because Davies is again the perfect person to describe this, I’ll just put his inviting words here:
Day and night, inside Giger Bar, you are enveloped within the womb of a mythical beast. It’s warm, inviting, even comforting, and just incredibly cool. Another key to the experience for me is contrast. It’s about contrast, juxtaposition. That feeling is something I want to convey in the US bar, by contrasting old versus new, clean versus biomechanical.
There are currently two Giger Bars in the world. One is in the Museum H.R. Giger in Gruyeres, Switzerland, and there’s another one in Giger’s hometown of Chur, Switzerland. I’d love to know how many people got so drunk the wicked designs made them throw up all over the place. I need statistics, people! Take a look at some of the designs below, more of which you can find at the Giger Bar website.
While there aren’t any solid plans yet for where the Sci-Fi Hotel is going to go, Davies has a list of possible locations narrowed down to five, with New York and Seattle leading the pack. (San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans round out the picks. I need it to go to New Orleans or I’ll just die, I tell you.) As someone who spent some years working in hotels, I can honestly say that it’s way better to spend a night there then work there, but I’d probably apply to this place just to get a peek inside.
