ABSTRACT
The Student Hotel (TSH) has developed a clever design template by allowing student residences to double as hotel rooms. In Florence, TSH has applied this concept to a huge 19th-century palazzo. As well as 390 guest rooms, this building now contains co-working and study areas, retail and event spaces, a big communal kitchen and a fully equipped gym. A key principle of TSH’s model is that students and hotel guests are mixed together, just as they would be in any coffee shop, restaurant or pub. There is an industry-wide reluctance to this, with the perception that it could be dangerous in some way, but MacGregor wants to challenge that. Although TSH has its own in-house design team, it often teams up with architecture and design studios. In Florence, the company chose to work with Italian practices Archea Associati and Rizoma Architetture, who helped get the best out of the palazzo’s difficult floor plan.
