by Tom Mulvihill, The Telegraph, April 30, 2018
IKEA could soon be opening its first ‘shop ‘n’ flop’ hotel outside of Sweden in a brutalist building in the small city of New Haven, Connecticut.
The Swedish furniture giant is reportedly in talks with developers to renovate and convert the Seventies-built Pirelli Tire Building, formerly the Armstrong Rubber Building, which IKEA owns.
It would be the company's second foray into hotels, following the 2016 opening of the IKEA Hotell in its ‘home town’, Älmhult, in southern Sweden (where you can also visit the IKEA museum).
Serving as a snapshot of what IKEA might propose for its Connecticut venture, the Swedish hotel features minimalist interiors decked out with flat-pack furniture, as well as a restaurant serving the brand's 'signature' meatballs.
• The world's most unusual hotels
The Pirelli Tire Building, recognisable for the top-heavy look resulting from the large gaps left between its second and third floors, was designed by the Hungarian-born modernist architect, Marcel Breuer, who learnt his trade at the famous Bauhaus school of art.
Large chunks of the original building were bulldozed when IKEA acquired the property in 2003, although the main tower was preserved when the company instead chose to build its Connecticut outlet on an empty plot nearby.
Now it appears the company hopes to turn the vacant building into a convenient base for visitors to its store, which is to date the company’s only store in the state.
Should the plan for the new hotel go ahead, it will join a larger trend of major retailers launching hotels sidelines, which most recently saw the January launch of Muji’s new ‘anti-cheap’ concept in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
This article was written by Tom Mulvihill from The Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.
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