ST. LOUIS—Michael Jantzen, an artist strongly influenced by nature and technology, who has been producing conceptual art and architectural projects for almost 40 years, has released his latest hotel design—The Solar Winds Desert Hotel. An idea still in need of a developer, the hotel design, according to Jantzen, evolved from his thoughts about desert plants and how they function in a hot dry climate. The 140-room luxury eco-hotel, vertically cylindrical in design, would be powered by the sun and the wind. The “stem” of the hotel would house the hotel rooms, a vertical axis wind turbine would sit atop the hotel to provide electrical power, and solar cells or photovoltaic paint on films (a technology still under development) would be positioned on the surface of the structure to also generate electricity.
“Leaves” would shade various facilities at the base such as restaurants, a gym, a pool, a spa, retail spaces and offices. A large restaurant, bar, and observation deck would also be located at the top of the hotel. Various natural cooling strategies would be incorporated into the design of the hotel including the installation of earth pipes buried deep in the desert below the property. As the wind blows over the top of the center 
portion of the structure, earth cooled air from below would be pulled up through the hotel’s interior space. In addition, all of the windows in the hotel would be shaded with overhangs built into the structure.
“It is my hope that projects like this will help to demonstrate how the inclusion of alternative energy gathering strategies into the design of high end luxury facilities can point the way toward a new and exciting esthetic, for a greener tomorrow,” Jantzen said.
Not trained as an architect—even though his works push the boundaries of modern architecture—Jantzen considers himself an artist and an inventor. His work has been featured in hundreds of articles in books, magazines, and newspapers all over the world. Some of his designs have been exhibited at the National Building Museum, the Canadian Center for Architecture, the Union of Russian Architects, the Harvard School of Design and Architecture, and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Skiing on the Skin of a Hotel
The Solar Winds Desert Hotel is one of several innovative hotel designs that have generated significant publicity for Jantzen. His North Slope Ski Hotel, which Jantzen says has probably generated more media reaction than any project he has done, is a 95-room property with a 400-foot ski slope on the side of the structure. Still in search of a developer, it would be powered primarily by the wind and the sun—eight large vertical axis wind turbines mounted on the top of the hotel, and a large array of flexible photovoltaic cells on south face of the structure. The building would rely on passive solar for some heating and the warmth of the earth—via deeply buried pipes.
Jantzen envisioned the North Slope Ski Hotel as a mountain, with the wind turbines taking the place of trees. Guests would even be able to ski down the side of the hotel in the summer thanks to a special surface. The slope would contribute to water conservation by channeling rain water to large storage containers buried at the base of the slope. There would be many other unusual amenities in and around the hotel, such as an eco-spa and a gym where guests could help generate electricity when working out on exercise equipment.
The Solar Winds Desert Hotel and North Slope Ski Hotel are just two examples of Jantzen’s creations that were inspired by nature and technology. The Desert Winds Eco Spa is a conceptual design study for a small scale, environmentally conscious, solar and wind powered facility. Also, the Red Sky Vacation Retreats is a proposal for futuristic, high-tech retreat dwellings.
Finding the right developers to match his ideas remains Jantzen’s biggest challenge.
“Like many of the projects I do, the intention is to carry them through actual construction,” he says. “My ideas get a tremendous amount of press but they do not necessarily reach the right people.”
Go to www.michaeljantzen.com.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
