Drain Pipe Hotel

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Drain Pipe Hotel

While I might be slightly squeamish about staying in Austrian Andreas Strauss’s open-to-the-public, semi-outdoor, pay-what-you-want dasparkhotel, I love the idea of using drain pipe sections as small outdoor structures. I have no idea if it’s really all that cost-effective. My guess is that the pipe itself is pretty cheap, but getting it where you want it to be is not. But high cool points.

54 thoughts on “Drain Pipe Hotel

  1. mark cornelius says:

    Yeah, I’ve thought about these as shelter of some kind, but as you say, getting it to location might be expensive. I’d like to have one in my backyard, though – maybe strategically placed out of the sun with a little mosquito netting over the ends. Looks like a cool space to rest and think.

    I enjoy these articles on small shelters, BTW, like this and some of Deek’s Yellow House exploits. Good Stuff, Make:

  2. kellbot says:

    I imagine the custom-built bedframe isn’t cheap either, but it’s still neat looking.

  3. Luis E. Rodriguez says:

    Could be another maker space form!

  4. Anonymous says:

    “Drain Pipe Hotel:  Welcome Hobbits!”

  5. Anonymous says:

    “Drain Pipe Hotel:  Welcome Hobbits!”

  6. Stuart Nicholson says:

    This may be a naive question, but where’s the insulation? Won’t naked concrete pipe sections get rather cold over night?

  7. Stuart Nicholson says:

    This may be a naive question, but where’s the insulation? Won’t naked concrete pipe sections get rather cold over night?

  8. Stuart Nicholson says:

    This may be a naive question, but where’s the insulation? Won’t naked concrete pipe sections get rather cold over night?

  9. Michael Garrett says:

    My wife and I have outdoor  kennels for our dogs, this gives me ideas !

  10. azindn says:

    Three concerns:  1) bathroom, 2) minibar, 3) phone to call for room service!

  11. azindn says:

    Three concerns:  1) bathroom, 2) minibar, 3) phone to call for room service!

    1. Chuck Addams says:

      It’s a sewer pipe, who needs a bathroom?

    2. Anonymous says:

      1) Porta-potty; 2) BYOB; 3) Cell phone with Domino’s on speed dial!

  12. julie burkey says:

    my elementary school used to have a few of these on the playground.  hanging out in “the pipes” was the coolest part of recess.  how awesome these are!

  13. Bryan Carreno says:

    That look’s nice,how are rates for like a month?

    1. strauss says:

      ..dasparkhotel works with a pay as you wish system !!

  14. Bryan Carreno says:

    That look’s nice,how are rates for like a month?

  15. Joe Kozak says:

    I looked into this…  up to 80inch diameter, up to 3000$ as memory serves, up to 12,000 lbs!… not exactly carbon footprint lightweight, unless you amortize over 1000 years!!  Build a nice, freshly carbon-sequestered pine mini bunk instead. Concrete takes a lot of fossil fuels to produce.

  16. Joe Kozak says:

    you can buy a nice two-piece 14foot diameter metal culvert (2 x 30 feet long sections) for $60,000 just about 10 miles North from St. Louis on  I-55 in Illinois on the West side of the highway.  Look for giant spray painted number on tube.  I wanted to make a quonset garage with it, but PRICEY!

  17. Anonymous says:

    This isn’t the first time people have lived in pipes! The Oakland Museum of California tells this story in the Gallery of California History: At the foot of 19th Avenue in Oakland, nearly 200 people lived in leftover concrete sewer pipes, scavenging vegetables from nearby grocery wholesalers. They called their village “Miseryville,” but the press dubbed it “Pipe City.” From the Central Valley to coastal cities, homeless families built roadside camps and makeshift shantytowns like this. With foreclosures at an all-time high and migrants pouring into the state, housing was scarce and people found shelter where they could.

    “To qualify for citizenship in Pipe City you must be jobless, homeless, hungry, and preferably shoeless, coatless, and hatless. If one also is discouraged, lonely, filled with a terrible feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, one’s qualifications are that much stronger. One belongs.”    — Oakland Post-Enquirer, December 3, 1932

  18. Anonymous says:

    This isn’t the first time people have lived in pipes! The Oakland Museum of California tells this story in the Gallery of California History:
     
    At the foot of 19th Avenue in Oakland, nearly 200 people lived in leftover concrete sewer pipes, scavenging vegetables from nearby grocery wholesalers. They called their village “Miseryville,” but the press dubbed it “Pipe City City.” From the Central Valley to coastal cities, homeless families built roadside camps and makeshift shantytowns like this. With foreclosures at an all-time high and migrants pouring into the state, housing was scarce and people found shelter where they could.

    “To qualify for citizenship in Pipe City City you must be jobless, homeless, hungry, and preferably shoeless, coatless, and hatless. If one also is discouraged, lonely, filled with a terrible feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, one’s qualifications are that much stronger. One belongs.”    — Oakland Post-Enquirer, December 3, 1932

  19. Jim Christy says:

    Dig it into a hill and you could have a wine cave.

  20. rod gandysr says:

    i want you think outside of the box for a few seconds: could unit be used for tempary housing, i know it doesnt have running water.
    could it be semi-fully berried for fall out selter or emergance cases.

    but i think its a grate idea and i had the time or money i would love to visit and stay at any cost i just would like to experance the ideas.

    thank you rod gandy usa

  21. rod gandysr says:

    like i said before could be used as temper housing, fall-out selter, if berried in the back yard for emergance perposes, store food, water, fuel, living items in on selter and living in another.

    i tink its a great idea, and if i had time, money to travel there i would just to experance the new idea.
    thank you
    rod gandy  mesa az usa

  22. No Worrys says:

    Very cool idea! I’d stay there. In fact modules like this would make a great home. With the multiple sizes you can get these concrete structures in the possibilities are endless.

  23. No Worrys says:

    Very cool idea! I’d stay there. In fact modules like this would make a great home. With the multiple sizes you can get these concrete structures in the possibilities are endless.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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