2.7 The typologies of hotels with social and architectural design impact
Socialist countries of Eastern Europe, after the World War II, along with the emergent need for the country reconstruction, considered an important component the social issues which stimulated these countries to develop large-scale seaside infrastructure, to accommodate the citizens need for vacations. Since 1945, the typologies of tourism facilities in terms of accommodation were presented to the world in abundance, through the International Style. One of the first significant type was the “High-Rise Tower” Hotel which was a concept transposed from the urban context to the beachfront, initiated with the Hilton International, the Caribe Hilton (1946-1949) in Puerto Rico. This type was followed by the “Slender Tower “Typology applied in Pitsuda Trade Union Holiday Houses (1962-1967) and “Massive Slabs” in Inturist Hotel Yalta (1977). Horizontal compositions with blocks during the modernism, were later on configured in specific shapes like the “Y” shaped which consisted on a ground plan distribution with three arms straddling the landscape. This typology is presented quite outstandingly in the Hotel de Garbe in Armacao de Pera, Portugal (1959-1964). “Terraced hotel” Type were presented by the architects as a solution in the difficult steep terrain by generally embedding the horizontal units in the topography like in hotel do Mar in Sesimbra Portugal (1960-1963). In France, we can find examples of densely built “Village Complex” in the Village du Merlier Holiday Resort (1959-1969) representing a complex concrete cubes structure on a cliff face near Saint Tropez. While the concept of Resort is revealed beautifully in the project of Six Resort Towns, Jan Baladur’s La Grande Motte, a combination of truncated pyramid structures, where for the first time in a typological mixed with apartments and villas for sale as well as hotels and camping site could accommodate for the first time 100.000 guests.
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