Ex-hotel, Design Mumbai

Developed for Design Mumbai 2025, the Ex-hotel project is a site-specific intervention that showcases the studio’s expertise in experimental re-assemblage and material responsibility. In collaboration with THE Park Hotels, the design team—led by Lucas Muñoz Muñoz and Joan Vellvé Rafecas—transformed a former hotel property into a unique temporary café space, extracting value from abandoned furniture and forgotten architectural elements found on-site.

The project was executed through an intensive six-day residency, where the team worked alongside THE Park's local staff to reactivate objects destined for disposal. Following a strict low-impact design strategy, the studio aimed to leave a minimal environmental footprint. All interventions were temporary: reclaimed hotel components were repurposed using only clamping, tying, and mechanical assembly, deliberately avoiding the use of adhesives, permanent fixes, or chemical finishes such as paints and varnishes.

The resulting interior is a striking, unpolished environment that serves as a living tribute to the studio's key artistic influences, including Gordon Matta-Clark, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and the Droog design movement. By refusing to install traditional elements like wall-to-wall carpeting or suspended ceilings, the team highlighted the raw beauty of the "found" space. This project, part of the studio’s "projects" scale, stands as a powerful statement on circular economy and the role of the designer as an urban miner, proving that high-end hospitality spaces can be created through the creative reuse of existing resources.