Hotel's Modular Construction Saves on Resources
This citizenM is Seattle’s first modular hotel and serves as a model for sustainable hotel design. The building’s 228 modules comprise the guestrooms. Below its gridded facade is a steel cage body that provides space for a spacious lobby, a bar/dining lounge, meeting rooms, and all the other amenities guests expect.
Everything above the ground floor was built as units via citizenM’s long-time fabrication partner, Polcom, in Poland, then shipped to Seattle. While the relatively long transportation route takes a toll from an environmental perspective, the design team says it doesn’t outweigh the environmental benefits of building in a factory. The hotel is more assembled than built. On an average day, the Seattle construction team stacked seven to eight modules at the site. The rooms were set in just 89 days, allowing for a schedule reduction of four months. In addition to shortening the construction timeline, the factory-assembled modules reduce construction costs and waste. They are a higher quality product not subject to risk factors like weather-related delays and labor and material shortages. The contractor determined that 85% of construction debris was recovered, reused, or recycled.
On top of those environmental benefits, the building also boasts solar panels on its roof and a heat pump, a measure rarely used for hotels. The result is a LEED Gold certification and a structure that uses 29% less energy than otherwise.
The Geberit wall-mount contributes to the sustainability mission by saving water. In addition, every Geberit concealed system comes with a dual-flush capability. Pairing the system with a Geberit Sigma20 dual-flush actuator. The standard volume is 1.6 or 1.28 gallons for solids and 0.8 gallons or liquids, saving each room thousands of gallons of water per year, exceeding high-efficient toilet standards.