Familiar strangers proposes a scenario that slowly transforms the hotel and its management style, learning from the daily disruptions and misuses. Alterations spread over time are accumulated on top of each other, creating and discovering other uses of the building. After all, embracing change is one of the core values of Marriott.
Like stage sets, hotels and their lobbies catch attention and provide a backdrop for human interactions. Rather than forcing contact between guests, a new model is put into place by letting visible traces of usage: objects are slowly put on display, voluntarily or not, and become screens onto which imaginative stories of lives past and present can be projected. Temporary kinships are created, and the building and its users become familiar strangers. Gradually, the rooms are transformed into something that can be different and the building is reconnected to the city, fulfilling Marriott’s global vision for the hotel to be “Zurich’s inspiring place, where brilliance connects people.”
