Xinxin Li
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Speculative design / Industrial design

Citel-Camptel

Future modular hotel in the desert

A speculative modular hotel concept set in 2100, exploring how clustered and vertically stacked accommodation might respond to desert and urban settings.

Rendering of white modular hotel clusters rising from sand dunes, with faceted roofs and ribbed lower shells.
Camptel / desert overview

A scenario for 2100

The project imagines a future of population movement, travel and exchange between China and Central Asia. Its modular accommodation proposal explores shared living, local resources and energy concepts within that imagined setting.

The environmental systems and development scenarios shown in the boards are design proposals.

Read the original scenario
What will happen in 2100... Several countries are intensifying their efforts towards global expansion and development due to the rapid advancement of high technology. In response to population growth, China strategically modified its approach by partnering with Central Asian nations to facilitate population migration solutions, foster goods exchange, and expand development sites for travel and commerce. An important outcome of this collaboration is designing an innovative residential system, promoting socio-cultural integration, and utilizing local resources to generate renewable energy. Successful implementation of this system holds immense potential to address global challenges while spurring sustainable progress.

01 / Setting & research

Sunlit sand dunes establish the desert setting for the speculative hotel proposal.
Desert setting
Research board with a Central Asia map, landscape imagery and notes on regional context and potential development.
Regional research

02 / Concept development

Reference images of tents and portable shelter sit above three folded, faceted form studies.
Early concepts / portable living
Desert camp references accompany small clustered and stacked modular form studies.
Early concepts / desert camping
CAD views explore faceted modular shells, structural forms and vertical stacking.
CAD development
Photographs of pale physical models show individual, clustered and vertically stacked modules.
Physical prototypes

03 / Spatial experience & modular systems

Several linked modular hotel units form a cluster in the desert, showing elevated rooms and sculptural supports.
Camptel / clustered arrangement
Annotated rendering of a desert hotel module identifies proposed collection surfaces, observation areas and reflective glazing.
Exterior systems / concept annotations
Cutaway hotel rendering shows stacked interior spaces and annotations describing proposed social, food and garden areas.
Interior organization / concept annotations
Side-by-side renderings compare a broad desert module and a vertical tower of stacked units.
Camptel & Citel / modular configurations

04 / Urban applications

Concept montage places a tall modular hotel beside water and domed buildings in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Citel / Astana
Concept montage places a vertically stacked modular hotel among the historic buildings of Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
Citel / Bukhara
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