Designed by architects Emiliano López and Mónica Rivera for the desert-like landscape of Navarre, Spain, the Hotel Aire de Bardenas is composed of a series of small dwellings that overlook a wheat field. To take advantage of the spectacular views, the architects designed alcove beds that jut out from the rooms, forming a platform along the sill of the window...
The design and construction of the beds is simple: each window is fitted with solar filters, while the sills are lined with plywood and furnished with mattresses and pillows. Oriented towards the northeast, the window beds avoid harsh direct sunlight.
López and Rivera describe the beds as "inhabitable windows," where guests can read, watch TV, contemplate views, or sleep. Rooms also include more private beds located away from views.
For more information about the hotel and its alcove beds, check out:
• Emiliano López and Mónica Rivera Arquitectes
• Hotel Aire de Bardenas
• Wallpaper Magazine's Review of the Hotel
• Photos and Review from Yatzer
Photos: Emiliano Lopez and Mónica Rivera Arquitectes, Wallpaper Magazine, Hotel Aire de Bardenas
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Shaw's Original Fir...
How to Bake a Potato: Three Easy Methods
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
This may be the most wonderful thing I have ever seen...
Wow, I want one. Except it would interrupt my sleeping in on the weekends. ;)
more please!
Just WOW. A beautiful reminder of the power of great ideas.
Wow. That bed is amazing. But I looked at the hotel's website, and I have to say, it's not somewhere I'd like to spend my vacation. It's undeniably beautiful, but its beauty is stark and cold and not particularly restful, if you know what I mean... But if I ever build myself a home, I'm getting an alcove bed.
Utterly exceptional. Truly!
This is the most beautiful idea I've ever seen. I badly want a view that would make me want a bed like this.
oh. my. goodness - this is love.
I would like this as a window seat, but I would feel too exposed sleeping there.
Oh, wow, I really love it.
I would love to do something like this when we (someday) finish the second floor of our house. If the window could have a screen and still look attractive, it would be like a tiny little sleeping porch.
fantastic!
So... I'm the only person who would get TOTALLY freaked out that a creepy ax murderer would be standing next to the window watching me sleep?
I want to go to there.
Oh, how funny, Architectural Review (not Record or Digest) featured this last month.
You could do this at home with a mural instead of a window.
i just want to live there!! and light doesn't bother me because I have the covers practically over my head and I sleep deeply
Totally NOT zombie-proof.
No, not zombie-proof... but some things are worth dying for. That view is one of them. Brains are overrated, anyway.
Reminds me of Thomas Jefferson's (Monticello) "pass through" bed. Instead of a view, the bed niche joined/opened into another room.