Dezeen Magazine

Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene

Sahabat Selojene creates 2.8-metre-wide hotel in Indonesia

Architecture studio Sahabat Selojene has created PituRooms, a seven-bedroom hotel in Central Java in Indonesia that occupies a site measuring just 2.8 metres in width.

Dubbed the "skinniest hotel ever" by the studio, the hotel sits between an alleyway and houses on a plot in Salatiga that had struggled to attract interest and was left as a "dumping ground" due to the difficulty of building on it.

Taking up the challenge, Sahabat Selojene founder Ary Indra designed and now operates PituRooms in order to demonstrate how "limitation can be turned into potential".

Exterior of skinny hotel in Indonesia
Above: Sahabat Selojene has created a skinny hotel in Indonesia. Top image: it occupies a narrow plot in Salatiga, photo by David Permadi

"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," Indra told Dezeen. "Here we are skinniest."

"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," Indra continued.

"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."

Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
The hotel measures 2.8 metres in width

Due to the size and location of the site, pile foundations could not be used, so Indra worked closely with structural consultants to create deep well foundations that prevent the tall, narrow concrete structure from twisting.

The building is one room wide. Each "micro room" measures 2.8 by three metres with a height of 2.4 metres and contains a double bed and a bathroom pod with a toilet and shower.

Steel staircase in skinny hotel
A central steel staircase connects each level

Across the building's five floors, bedrooms and employee spaces sit at the narrow ends of the building, with a central steel staircase crossed by gridded metal walkways connecting each level.

The exterior of the block has been covered in panels of Agra Red sandstone and on the eastern facade a series of angled, "gill-like" openings provide ventilation to the central circulation area.

Custom artworks and colour palettes give each of the bedrooms a different character and each has two square windows that frame the surroundings.

On the top floor, a bar and restaurant opens onto a terrace at the rear of the hotel, providing guests with views out over the city. The plant room above projects out into two cantilevered steel cages from the two narrow ends of the building.

Bedroom inside of PituRooms hotel in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Each room has two square windows

In addition to being a space for guests, the hotel is also intended to be an active space for the community and hosts a programme of events and tours.

PituRooms has recently been longlisted in the hospitality project category of Dezeen Awards 2023.

For more examples of how designers have approached slender sites, see Dezeen's roundup of ten residential interiors that make the most of narrow spaces.

The photography is by Ernest Theophilus unless stated otherwise.

More images and plans

Site plan of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Site plan
Ground floor plan of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Ground floor plan
Second floor plan of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Second floor plan
Fifth floor plan of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Fifth floor plan
Sixth floor plan of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Sixth floor plan
Section of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Section
Section of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Section
Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Interior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Interior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Interior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Interior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Interior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Interior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Photo is by David Permadi
Exterior of PituRooms in Indonesia by Sahabat Selojene
Photo is by David Permadi