Traveler’s Inn
. . . any town or city has visitors and travelers passing through, and these visitors will naturally tend to congregate around the centers of activity—Magic of the City, Activity Nodes, Promenade, Night Life, Work Community. This pattern shows how the hotels which cater to these visitors can most effectively help to sustain the life of these centers.
Problem:
A man who stays the night in a strange place is still a member of the human community, and still needs company. There is no reason why he should creep into a hole, and watch TV alone, the way he does in a roadside motel.
Background & Research: Not Included on the site—Go read the book!
Solution:
Make the traveler’s inn a place where travelers can take rooms for the night, but where—unlike most hotels and motels—the inn draws all its energy from the community of travelers that are there any given evening. The scale is small—30 or 40 guests to an inn; meals are offered communally; there is even a large space ringed round with beds in alcoves.
Usage:
The heart of the conviviality is the central area, where everyone can meet and talk and dance and drink—Common Areas at the Heart, Birth Places, and Beer Hall. Provide the opportunity for communal eating, not a restaurant, but common food around a common table—Communal Eating; and, over and above the individual rooms there are at least some areas where people can lie down and sleep in public unafraid—Sleeping in Public, Communal Sleeping. For the overall shape of the inn, its gardens, parking, and surroundings, begin with Building Complex . . .
pg. 448