ABSTRACT

Tourism is a leisure activity which presupposes its opposite: the labor force. By borrowing Pratt’s terminology, Anti-Conquest, we assert this reliance on others’ exploitation and seek to diverge from the existing conditions. Therefore, we present a counterproposal for the last 3-star hotel owned by Meliá Hotels International, formerly Sol Meliá, on Menorca. The need to reconceive hospitality stems from an increasing supply of luxury along the Mediterranean coasts, losing the democratized right to vacations. Another concern is the deregulation of the housing market driven by platforms such as Airbnb. These trends generate a political economy in which spaces, as well as clients and maintainers, are commodified and abstracted. To address these challenges, we focus on a building typology in crisis, that offers temporal vacancy and is subject to polemic disputes: the high-rise, dense, cheap, and tacky Hotel. Sol Milanos Pingüinos offers a potential model for sites that are currently being expanded into 5-star resorts or demolished altogether. Benefiting from the collectivization of housekeeping amenities, we imagine the building leased by a workers’ cooperative, including both permanent living units and temporary accommodations. Former hidden labor spaces are turned into common areas, spatializing Contact Zones, to enable mutual coexistence. The plinth is opened to the public, granting the island’s inhabitants access to the seaside. This project is in service of taming tourism and its progressive externalization of social and environmental problems in pursuit of greater profit.