Travel: Amangiri Resort at Four Corners Utah

Located on a 243-hectare (600-acre) expanse of wilderness the Amangiri resort is tucked into a protected valley with sweeping views over colourful, stratified rock towards the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. Architecturally, the resort has been designed to blend into the landscape with natural hues, materials and textures a feature of the design. The structures are commanding and in proportion with the scale of the natural surroundings, yet provide an intimate setting from which to view and appreciate the landscape.

Amangiri, Amanresorts, Canyon Point, Utah, USA, by Marwan Al-Sayed, Wendell Burnette and Rick Joy

Nomiya Space Restaurant at Palais de Tokyo

The Nomiya restaurant is replacing the Hotel Everland on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo for one year. Designed by the artist Laurent Grasso, the glass cube is part of the ‘Art Home’ culinary project by the Palais de Tokyo and Electrolux. The Nomiya concept developed for the Palais de Tokyo is a project that’s both inspired and named after the tiny Japanese bars. In the creation of Nomiya, Laurent Grasso was assisted by his brother, Pascal Grasso, an architect. Nomiya Space is a rectangular glass box about the size of a shipping container. “We tried to create an overall impression of airiness, transparency, floating,” said the French artist Laurent Grasso.

Nomiya Space, by Laurent Grasso, for Art Home
via: Travel with Frank Gehry

W Hotel New York by BBG-BBGM

Conceived as an urban oasis, the new guestrooms of the W Hotel designed by BBG-BBGM offer a respite from the chaos of the city by immersing the guest in soothing colors and textures inspired by nature. Curving, organic shapes complement modern angles while crisp white is softened with tones from the forest and earth.

Wow and Extreme Wow Specialty Suites Designed to evoke the essence of “chill”- offsetting New York City’s adrenaline and energy, the newly redesigned Wow and Extreme Wow (E Wow) specialty suites at the W Lexington offer something highly coveted and rare in urban environments – a unique experiential setting filled with unpredictable creativity.

W Hotel, New York, USA by BBG-BBGM
via: Arch Daily

Distrito Capital, Mexico City by Joseph Dirand

Following on success of Hotel Habita in Monterrey, Mexico Grupo Habita unveils its 8th property, Distrito Capital, in Mexico City’s international business neighborhood of Santa Fe, and most resolutely the world’s 21st-Century metropolis. With Distrito Capital, the Company once again carries its signature chic and outstanding service to previously unthought-of environments and transforms them into instant classics.

The latest, most arresting interior design trends this time courtesy of Parisian Joseph Dirand come into their own at Distrito Capital. Grupo Habita left nothing to chance, from the most prominent vintage furnishings like Eames & Saarinen’s Organic Chair to details like John Pawson’s cutlery, and even in the smallest (yet significant) in-room amenities from Acqua di Parma. In all spaces, rigorous horizontals and verticals are enhanced by modern furnishings courtesy of Platt, Hansen and Aalto among others.

Distrito Capital, Mexico City, Mexico, by Joseph Dirand, Diámetro Arquitectos
for Grupo Habita
via: Yatzer

Luxury Vending Machine by Mari Balestrazzi

The automat — that ’50s-era icon of American ingenuity known for vending rubbery sandwiches from glass compartments — is back, and this time it’s boutique. Exhibit A: The most opulent and cheeky element of the Mondrian South Beach, a Marcel Wanders-designed hotel that opened in Miami in December, is a vending machine that now anchors the lobby. The Semi-Automatic was designed not by Wanders but by Mari Balestrazzi for the Morgans Hotel Group, to conquer the cliché of the gift shop.

via: The Moment, New York Times

Barcelo Raval Hotel Opens

“For designers the Raval Hotel is what a candy shop is to a five year old.” Barcelona’s 5 star Raval Hotel, is now open after a 35 million Euro face lift.
 
Barceló Raval Hotel, Barcelona, Spain, by Jose Maria Guillen White
Photos by Jordi Miralles
via: Yatzer

DDR TV Tower Models from Domino Amsterdam

These models of actual Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) Communication towers, were given to party apparachiks and visiting dignitaries during the opening ceremonies. Artisans in West Germany were later inspired by the form and the collection was enhanced.

TV Towers are available at Domino in Amsterdam—a store with a split personality: on one side is Domino Vintage (3rd photo down) which sells outstanding furniture, lamps, objects and art from both known and unknown designers from the 1950s to the 1980s, and on the other side, Domino con Amore (Photo above) which sells beautiful Italian hand-made shoes shirts and bags.

TV Towers, ca. 1940 – 1980, designers unknown, available at Domino Vintage

Mondrian South Beach Hotel by Marcel Wanders

One of the main events at this year’s Art Basel Fair in Miami was the grand opening of the Mondrian South Beach Hotel. The hotel’s interior is designed by Marcel Wanders, and creates a sense of space with large supporting spindle-like columns and ornately patterned staircases. The intention was to give the new Mondrian’s interior a romantic, fairy tale feeling. Part of the interior design includes delft blue tiles with images depicting girls and sharks, chandelier showers and a small coach house entrance which features six large bell chandeliers. The hotel’s sunset lounge provides views over Miami’s downtown skyline while golden candelabras and onyx jewel-cut stools are combined with ottomans and antiques creating contrasting visual elements between the imagined and the forgotten.

Mondrian South Beach, by Marcel Wanders, for The Morgans Hotel Group

Model: World Trade Center NYC

The American Architectural Foundation has donated the model of the World Trade Center to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, to be opened in 2012.

“Architectural models are inherently fragile and challenging to maintain,” the museum’s chief curator, Jan S. Ramirez, said in a statement. “It is a double stroke of exceptional luck and far-sighted stewardship that this outstanding model has outlived the building complex it was created to forecast.”

“This model has the unparalleled capacity to help tell the first chapter of the World Trade Center story,” said Joseph C. Daniels, the president of the memorial and museum.

World Trade Center New York, Model by Minoru Yamasaki Associates
via: The New York Times

Hotel Überfluss Bremen by Concrete

Concrete has taken the name Überfluss (which translates in to ‘abundance’) literally and made it one of the key elements in the design. Classic ornamented elements with a modern twist, either in shape, material or manufacturing process provide the way to express this wealth and luxury.

Design Hotel Überfluss, Bremen, Germany by Concrete