The Boardwalk Hotel

The Boardwalk Hotel was recently completed in Port Elizabeth South Africa. The Hotel is situated behind the existing Caltex petrol station. The Hotel is to serve the rest of the Boardwalk, which consists of the casino, a number of restaurants, shops, food stores as well as many other functions all placed around the lake.

The building has been designed to fit in with the "Disney Land" aesthetic, initially introduced when the boardwalk was first designed. The hotel stands high above the existing buildings to it's immediate surroundings and the rest of the Boardwalk.

A concern to many is the lack of honesty in the form. The towers which are large volumes with no usable space within the volume. The elements used to give an illusion of a door, but are in fact not doors at all, but purely decorative.

The counter argument would be that the decorative elements are an implied detail to the aesthetic of the Boardwalk as a whole, and that the intension, which is to create interest and mystery as to what their functions are is successful. Although many may not appreciate the decorative aesthetic, the intention is met.

Although the implied decoration has it's own argument within the problem which was addressed in the hotel's design when it was initially built, an unfortunate reality is the large volumes of space with beautiful views which were left unusable and became purely service zones.

The argument of decorative against rational is one that can continue well beyond the Boardwalk design. The design may bring a lot of new problems with it, but as designers and architects, we need to be optimistic with the future in order to have any positive impact in the environments we give character to.