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AN ODDLY sized, unwanted piece of land has been used to create the “world’s skinniest hotel”.
The land sat between an alleyway and houses, and was being used as a dumping ground.
Architect Ary Indra’s project, PituRooms, has been a labour of love, with the unique size meaning that he had to work closely with structural consultants to ensure the integrity of the foundation.
His hotel is five-floors, with a width of nine feet, leaving him just enough space to have seven rooms.
Yet, despite the lack of space, Ary has been able to fill each room with a double bed, as well as a bathroom equipped with a shower and toilet.
Custom colour palettes, and the use of unique, local artwork, mean that none of the rooms have the same interior, and have a very distinct feel to them.
Ary has also included a bar and restaurant on the top floor of the hotel.
Ary was born and raised in Salatiga, Central Java, a tiny town in Indonesia. Although he trained as an architect in Singapore and Jakarta, he felt compelled to put his skills to use back home.
“I want people to experience Salatiga in a new way,” Ary said.
“I own, designed and operate PituRooms with my own team.
“It has become my new platform to generate a new type of tourism which involves local communities.”
According to him: “Aside from the technical difficulties, the biggest challenge was the typical mindset surrounding the hospitality industry that is used to superlative words: biggest, tallest, most luxurious,
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“We tried very hard to turn this limitation to become our strongest selling point, that this is a built study of micro-space, and guests can experience the possibility of living and choreographing their movement in ‘just enough’ space,
“So far the reaction we receive from our guests is that they are amazed by how little space is actually needed to live and move comfortably.”
Ary revealed that since PituRooms opened in December 2022, 95 per cent of their guests have been Indonesian.
His small home town is 300 miles away from Jakarta, and remains largely unknown to tourists – who choose to holiday in Jakarta, or the neighbouring island of Bali instead.
Ary hopes that PituRooms is just the first of many projects that will draw attention to the town and prove to outsiders that Salatiga has a lot to offer.
As well as being a space to host guests, Ary has also intended for the hotel to be used as a place for community events.
He said that most Indonesians typically think of Salatiga as a place to retire, but he knows that his project can help them see that life here is much more than just living slowly.
Ary isn’t the only visionary attempting to break hospitality stereotypes with his “thinnest hotel”.
The world’s “smallest hotel”, measuring just over 173 square metres in total, has been charging guests a pretty penny for a stay since 2008.
The Eh’häusl Hotel, Germany, is only open to two guests at a time and costs the pair £217 per night – although breakfast is included.
Obviously winning the title for the world’s “most swamp-like hotel”, fans of Shrek can also stay in the ogre’s iconic outbuilding, in his iconic swamp.
As of October this year, nestled deep into the heart of the Scottish Highlands, an AirBnB user called “Donkey” put a replica on the app for guests to visit.
