You’ve cleaned them, you’ve fixed their infrastructure, and you’ve used waterjetting equipment to break up debris caked on their walls. But have you ever slept in a sewer pipe? If you (or your customers) are interested in trying it, search no further. 

Repurposed drainpipes form a newly designed hotel in northern Austria. Designed by Austrian architect and designer Andreas Strauss, the hotel is located on the Danube River in the town of Ottensheim. And if you’re looking for a dip in the swimming pool, just step into the river outside your door. 

According to an article on Slate.com, Dasparkhotel is a “collection of five freestanding cylindrical rooms made from repurposed metropolitan drainage pipes.” 

There are currently no fixed prices for reservations, but potential guests can visit the hotel website for booking details (www.dasparkhotel.net/parkhotel/?lang=EN). Visitors receive a personal door code after booking, providing access to a specific suite. 

A short 330-foot walk downhill offers public restrooms and showers, a public water fountain, and a local cafe serves breakfast. 

The 7-foot-wide rooms contain many functional amenities you’ll find in a typical hotel room. “An unexpectedly comfortable interior includes full headroom, double bed, storage, light, power, woolly blanket and light cotton sleeping bag,” says the hotel website. With a “pay as you wish” system, guests are asked to leave however much money they can afford or want to pay since this is essentially an experimental project just getting started. 

“This donation model has proved lucrative enough for Dasparkhotel’s proprietors to open a second location at Bernepark in Bottrop, Germany,” says the Slate.com article. 

While this project isn’t being used to teach the public on the inner workings of sewer systems or why maintenance workers and plant operators are so important, it is an interesting educational tool. 

Perhaps sleeping in your city’s sewers isn’t a great idea, but it definitely gives the term “pipe dream” a whole new meaning. 

www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/10/29/sleep_in_a_concrete_sewer_pipe_at_this_austrian_hotel.html

How do you think your municipality could use this example to educate your customers? Post a comment below.