The winners of the Room 18 competition

The results for the Room 18 Design Competition are out! In this year's challenge, entrants pushed the boundaries in designing an 18 sq.m. urban hotel room that would create a new experience for the contemporary traveler.

Out of 262 submissions from 580 entrants representing 17 countries, three prize winners were selected: Leonidas Papalambropoulos of Greece won the first prize, João Prates Ruivo of Portugal won second, and Sara Navazo Saez De Arregui + Edorta Larizgoitia Andueza of Spain received third.  Additionally, the award committee picked nine proposals to receive six commendations (three of which were rated equal).

The three award-winning proposals will be realized at a 1:1 scale in the Room 18 exhibition, taking place at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece from November 23 through December 11.

Check out the prize-winning entries below.

1ST PRIZE: Leonidas Papalambropoulos | Greece - 'Elyseum & the politics of the golf course'

“Leonidas Papalambropoulos — architect of the award-winning Leivatho Hotel on Cephalonia — proposes a room with a relief, grass-covered floor, within walls which are completely covered by mirrors, so as to produce a sense of the boundless and of the outdoors.”

According to Leonidas Papalambropoulos, ['Elyseum & the politics of the golf course' is] an all-green room- park, inspired by the Elysian Fields and the structures of the golf course creates an ideal room - and, consequently, hotel - structured as a boundless landscape, a point for relaxation and free time, ”

2ND PRIZE: João Prates Ruivo (FORA) | Portugal

“João Prates Ruivo of Portugal-based practice FORA proposes a room-corridor, to all appearances empty, with the furnishings suspended. The visitor decides how many, which, and when he will use them.

As his main concept, João Prates Ruivo proposes that a hotel room is simultaneously a space for personal expression. His concept is a room-corridor, which has a width of 1 metre and a length of 18 metres and is equipped with all necessary furnishings. With the help of automatic mechanisms, the furnishings can be suspended at differing heights, depending upon the wishes of the user.”

3RD PRIZE: Sara Navazo Saez De Arregui & Edorta Larizgoitia Andueza (LA-NA) | Spain / “The dream box”

“Spanish architects Sara Navazo Saez De Arregui & Edorta Larizgoitia Andueza, who are based in London, imagined a room within a room. The bed, as an enclosed, wooden hanging box dominates the centre. Surrounding the bed are the bathroom fittings, furnishings, and other objects, which are all freely distributed in the space.

Their proposal, 'The dream box', is literally a sleeping-room within a hotel room. The bed — the furnishing which dominates in a hotel room and a reminder that the traveller is not in his own home — is situated in the middle in a wooden box and serves as a space of isolation from the rest of the room, and from the rest of the world.”

You can find the detailed results of the competition here.