The Minimalist

  • Krishan Kalra
  • India
  • Sep 12, 2014

 

 

Andrew Doolan was a Scottish architect. At the end of the 20th century he bought a defunct rundown supermarket in Edinburgh, and in its place designed and built a fine 140-room hotel called ‘Point’. The property included several suites, a 200-cover restaurant, a bar-grill and some conference rooms. It did good business, especially with the major tour operators. It had an excellent location, a 5-minutes walk from Queen Street - the main shopping centre of this historic town.  Andrew Doolan was also a ‘minimalist’; so we were told by our Scottish Tour Director, as we had neared the city. I think he was preparing us. We all knew that our hotel wouldn’t be a 7-star; however, his subtle hint didn’t quite prepare us for what was in store! 

As you entered the ‘Point’, what hit you was the small, stark lobby. There were no lounge chairs or sofas, no carpets, and not even any paintings, flowers or clocks. You only saw the restaurant on the left, beyond the glass panels, and a bare granite counter on the right, from where you picked up your keys. Each of the two lifts took only 6 passengers. When you entered the room and flicked the light switch, what came on was a tallish, table lamp – serving as the main room light.  You looked for more and, sure enough, there were two bedside ones.  That’s it, 3 small bulbs in a decent sized room; hold it, there was a fourth, a vertically placed fluorescent tube in the bathroom. I was beginning to understand the meaning of ‘minimalist’ - a 24-inch folding luggage stool was ‘wide enough’; one side table - placed in one corner to minimise the length of telephone wire – was also enough; and of course any painting or wall hanging or flower vase was superfluous. There were full sized glass windows on the far side. I quickly pulled out the desk drawers, and found no hotel stationery or business kit. There was no complimentary bottle of mineral water. In the bathroom there was a narrow granite counter, 2 cakes of soap, towels on the heating rails, and 2 glasses. No toiletries and no shower cap. The hand shower, stretched to a maximum height of 5’11’’. True minimalist, this Doolan guy.


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