Mosaic provides a flexible and sustainable solution for myriad situations. Infinite possibilities exist in private and commercial applications. The ingenuity of the Mosaic concept is its flexibility—it can be custom tailored to virtually any situation in any environment. Its implementation is based on the Mosaic PATHWAY (Portable Adaptable Temporary Hotel With Alternative You-ses) framework and built on a few basic core elements. Mosaic allows governments, developers, entrepreneurs, hoteliers, private organizations, and charitable aid societies the opportunity to create, design, develop and implement amazing new hospitality, vacation, housing, emergency shelter and support structures that are functional, beautiful, simple and adaptable to numerous situations in almost any geography.
Mosaic is a modular system comprised of organic, interlocking Prisms and is designed to be low-impact to the environment. Prisms are based on a modular assembly system constructed from a highly durable, scratch- and stain-resistant polymer, using 95% recycled materials. The structure of the Prism retracts and folds to a rectilinear shape, which is easily stackable and packs tightly for ease of shipment. Contained within this folded structure are most of the interior furnishings. All of the internal elements unpack with the structure as it is unfolded, and they are popped into position as the structure is secured and locked into place. The interior furniture then opens out of the walls of the Prism for seemingly instant installation and effortless comfort. (See Board 3 for diagrams). The prisms can come pre-fitted with built-in fixtures and furnishings or be designed on a case-by-case basis with plug-in interiors to be branded for any given operator, brand or designer. Each of the prisms can also come outfitted with all the necessary infrastructure to sustain itself for a set period of time including energy, plumbing and lighting.
Mosaic Prisms can be configured and grouped together to create hubs to serve different functions — like hotel lobbies, medical/spa facilities, or community infrastructure. In a prototypical mosaic implementation, the community infrastructure Hub, comprised of 18 Prisms, would have roof structures atop each of the Prisms to collect rainwater that is piped to the Storage Cistern and incorporated into the fresh water supply. Wind and sunlight are fed to the wind generators and solar panels, which generate electrical energy and send it to the Battery Storage. The Battery Storage provides day-to-day energy needs, in addition to functioning as an emergency battery back-up in the event of power loss. The Reverse Osmosis Plant utilizes sea water to extract fresh water, and both of these water supplies are treated and filtered by the UV Purification Unit. A Geothermal Heat Pump is utilized to heat and cool the water. In addition, the Geothermal Heat Pump can function as a heat exchanger to assist in the HVAC Heating / Cooling System. The Waste Processing Center separates solid and liquid wastes, where the fats, proteins and carbohydrates are sent to the Methane Digestor. The Methane Digestor incorporates a biological breakdown of organic material to produce Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Methane (CH4), a raw form of Biogas. The Biogas is then filtered and sent to the Methane Storage facility, where it can be distributed for heating and cooling.
These prisms are a solution to the cyclicality of demand for the hospitality industry. (Think medical response, festivals, remote areas, the Olympics, cultural events, and natural disasters, or even seasonal demand.) The prisms can be added on to existing hotel properties as guestrooms to capture additional peak-season business; and, if demand is slow, operators can simply pick up their network and move to a more profitable environment. Mosaic is flexible not only in the variety of functions it can be tailored to but also in its physical plan itself; making it true pop-up hospitality.
“The fact that Mosaic is flexible in terms of the physical plan itself for what demands are available is brilliant. One of the challenges with the industry is the cyclicality demand issues, and they came up with something innovative. If you have demand issues, then you can pick it up and move it, or use it for something else.” Michael Medzigian | Chairman, Founding & Managing Partner | Watermark Capital Partners Hospitality Design | August 2010 | p.50.
Mosaic differs from other pop-up hospitality concepts in that it is self-contained; has limitless possibilities; and not only offers a new approach to hospitality development, but also provides a useful solution for a spectrum of uses including low-income housing and disaster relief. The concept addresses the future of the hospitality industry as it evolves to meet the demands of Generation Y, who will become the biggest consumer group yet in history. Most importantly, Mosaic balances radical innovation with feasible implementation. Mosaic was the result of internal office-wide collaborative efforts, as everyone in the staff was invited to brainstorm on radically innovative ideas. The conversation went beyond just design to reflect on the needs of the industry in the context of the current global economy.