Capsule Hotels · Four hotels

the moving part: The moving part is the turnover itself. Cabins here are let by the hour, so beds are stripped and made again while the terminal stays awake around them. Linen trolleys travel the corridor between one guest and the next, pushed by hand. This is one address of the YOTELAIR chain, and it keeps its own working rhythm.

what it joins: It joins the public floor of the terminal to a row of small rooms behind one door. On the outer side people wait with bags at their feet and nowhere quiet to lie down. On the inner side there is a bed, a shower and a door that shuts properly.

what rides on it: Clean sheets and towels ride out folded and come back used. Carts carry soap, water and waste. Guests move along the same corridor with cabin bags, since luggage stays with them here, and staff pass with keys, spare pillows and stacked linen.

what never moves: The plan of the floor does not move. The corridor keeps its length, the cabins keep their order along the wall, and the door frames stay where they were fitted. Outside, the terminal changes its people constantly.

the moving part: Napcabs installs single cabins directly in the departure halls, and the moving part is the crowd that never stops passing them. Each cabin is a small closed box with a bed, a desk and a light of its own. This is a separate address of the Napcabs chain, set inside a building that belongs to somebody else.

what it joins: It joins the open hall, where announcements carry and every seat is shared, to a room with walls that stop sound. A guest steps from one into the other in a single stride. The hall keeps moving on the far side of the panel, and the cabin holds still while it does.

what rides on it: People ride nothing here except their own feet, and that is the point of the arrangement. Hand luggage comes in with them, coats go on a hook, and cleaning staff arrive between stays with cloths and fresh covers. Everything that enters a cabin is carried in.

what never moves: The cabins themselves stay where they were placed. They stand on the terminal floor like furniture, fixed down, keeping the same distance from each other and from the wall behind them.

the moving part: Sleeping pods here change hands through the day, and the moving part is that change: a pod is closed, aired, made up and opened again. Luggage moves with the guest rather than being sent on ahead. The address belongs to a small chain, and this is one of its own outposts inside a terminal.

what it joins: It joins the arrivals floor, where wheels sound on hard flooring all day, to a quiet row of berths behind a wall. Travellers cross from the noise into a made bed and back out again later. The two sides are separated by little more than a door and a change in the light.

what rides on it: Cases roll in beside their owners and stand at the foot of the bed. Towels and covers ride the cleaning cart. Nothing is checked in, nothing is sent on, and everything a guest owns stays within reach of a hand.

what never moves: The berths do not shift. The row keeps its shape, the lockers keep their places, and the floor under them is the same floor the terminal uses. Only the people inside them are exchanged.

the moving part: Guests here are lifted, not walked, to their berth. A lift and a narrow corridor carry the whole house upward through a tall, thin building, and the pods are stacked along the floors above. The Prime Pod runs several addresses, and this one stands in Kyoto, separate from the rest of them.

what it joins: It joins the street door to the sleeping floors above, passing the washing rooms on the way. Shoes are left low in the building and the body goes up. The lift is the only link between the entrance and the berths, so everyone staying in the house passes through it.

what rides on it: People ride it with a towel and a small bag, because larger cases stay below in lockers. Staff ride it with folded bedding and cleaning water. The corridor above is narrow enough that riding up is easier than carrying anything past somebody else.

what never moves: The stack of berths does not move. Each pod keeps its opening on the corridor, the ladders stay fixed where they are, and the washing rooms remain on the floor where they were built.