Vistadais One
The inaugural project for The Future Bureau, Vistadais One is an off-grid, luxury accommodation pod specially designed for the hospitality industry.
While the demand for overnight stays in the UK continues to grow, it currently outstrips supply. Vistadais One has been designed to mitigate as many planning restrictions as possible and reach a wider scope of area.
One of the star attractions at Futurebuild 2019, Vistadais One is an ecological breath of fresh air that utilises innovative material and design choices. The ground-breaking concept is truly off grid and can autonomously provide electricity, heating, running water and waste management.
Straight off the back of a successful three days at the UK’s leading built environment event, Premier Construction spoke to Vistadais Managing Director Ranjay Judge. He began by explaining how the idea for Vistadais first came about:
“My family and I were living in the middle east for eight years while I was working out there. When we came back to the UK two years ago, we went on holiday to Cornwall. We were stuck in the car for 8 hours trying to get there and then when we arrived at the hotel, which was supposed to have fantastic sea views, the room we had showed about 3 inches of sea. We wanted to go walking but it took another hour to get to the place we wanted to go to, and then we didn’t have long before we had to go back to the hotel.
“The idea was simply ‘wouldn’t it be great to be right where the action is?’ Being the Director of an architectural practice I knew the fundamental reason we can’t build in areas of outstanding beauty is planning. I went back and worked out how we could solve that problem and that’s how Vistadais came about.”
The concept took two years to develop and the base model costs £150,000. This includes an initial site visit, planning advice & guidance, delivery, installation, as well as one year’s maintenance. The Vistadais One is a one bedroom suite that includes bath/shower, twin sinks, toilet, light fittings, electrical sockets, fridge, ceiling, wall and floor finishes and exterior finishes. There is also the option of three interior packages. Ranjay continued:
“Our interior package is again based on research we made into materials. We needed to find an interior package that would be able to take the rigmarole of being lifted onto a lorry and then be erected on site. We found a manufacturer in Swindon called MWC, who are the leaders in the UK with regards to interior wall linings and coverings. Essentially you could get stone or timber on a roll, which is flexible and can stand the demands of transport.
“The biggest technical challenge was devising the technology in order to make it completely autonomous and off grid. Vistadais can be put into position and not have to be plugged into the utilities. Again, this is because we wanted to be as planning amenable as possible. The other major challenge was bringing the weight down in order to make sure it looked elegant.”
The Vistadais One can sleep four and is therefore ideal as a family room. Looking ahead, the Vistadais One Plus will be available in late 2019. It is essentially the same as the Vistadais One but with built in cooking facilities. There are also plans for a Vistadais Two, totalling 48.7m2 with two bedrooms.
Ranjay concluded: “The reason we went to Futurebuild is that we are the future of building, both in terms of a genuine, open, inclusive and transparent working philosophy and also in terms of offsite and modular construction. The show was a great opportunity for us, to showcase our product. The feedback was amazing; we were the most photographed stand ever at the show according to the organisers. We wanted to prove that conscientious, ecologically grounded design could still have the power to delight.
“Our company is called The Future Bureau and the reason for this is that we were fed up of the way that our industry has been working. What we wanted to work in a more inclusive and collaborative environment, cutting the crap and concentrating on things that matter, like designing and producing great products as well as having fun. Vistadais is the first iteration of our working ethos.”
To find out more, please visit www.vistadais.com & www.thefuturebureau.com.
