The Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life exhibitionopens tomorrow at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The show “charts the evolution of the hotel from an isolated and utilitarian structure to a cultural phenomenon that figures prominently around the world.”

The scope of the project is global, an acknowledgement of the pervasive presence of a commercial network that is architecturally formed, geographically distributed and socially defined. The title of the exhibition is in part a reference to the influential 1932 Hollywood film Grand Hotel, in which the lives of individual guests interweave during a brief hotel stay. The film depicts a thoroughly modern condition and demonstrates the potency of the hotel as both a real and symbolic nexus of human movement, interaction and ideas. The exhibition’s four main themes—travel, design, the social and culture—consider the vital role of travel and design in the development of the hotel, as well as the hotel’s important role as a site of social interaction and cultural production. Each theme speaks to a critical force that has given shape and meaning to the hotel. Together they tell the collective story of this important built form, elucidating its prominence in the public consciousness and reflecting the nature of the hotel itself: engaging, innovative, provocative, ephemeral. Quite simply, the hotel is a veritable laboratory of modern life.

We were given a sneak peek at the exhibition yesterday and it was amazing. So many layers. So much going on! Equally impressive are the companion website, blog, and publicationof 336 pages and 452 illustrations edited by Jennifer M. Volland and Bruce Grenville with Stephanie Rebick. Since the only feasible takeaway is the book (and it’s a beautifully put together tome), we wants it.

Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life | Publisher: Hatje Cantz | Available in the VAG Store | $60

EVERY COOL THING WE WANT