A 750m² monumental office building, empty for five years. I called the number on the To Let sign and built a hostel inside it.
Found the building on a bike ride through The Hague: a 1980s office maze behind a national-monument facade, vacant for five years. Called the owner off a To Let sign. He'd been using it as a personal office to keep squatters out.
Permits dragged on. The zoning plan had been annulled and had to be rebuilt from scratch, then a six-month extended procedure on top because of the monument status. Construction started 1 September 2013, with one fixed deadline: open by April 2014. Six months, twenty workers at peak, full strip-out to the shell and back.
Found a wrecked caravan online for €100, cut it into three pieces to get it through the door, and rebuilt it as a sleeping pod behind the corner windows. The fire department only signed off once we removed the wheels.
Every private room got its own story: my dad's art calendar torn apart for wallpaper, a curved-tile bathroom, raw brick in the Royal Suite.
Soft-opened 1 April 2014. The mayor of The Hague did the official opening eleven days later.
