Posts Tagged ‘Design’

By Dian Hasan | December 20, 2009

Ever since the arrival of Habita Hotel Mexico City, the term boutique hotel has firmly entered Mexico’s hospitality industry vocabulary. That first move by Grupo Habita has now expanded into a slew of boutique hotels across the country. And now it’s Mexico’s second city of business and trade, Monterrey to get a taste of chic hotel experience. Bienvenido, Habita Monterrey!

Habita Monterrey is sleek and spare but comfortable. All rooms are furnished with riffs on Midcentury Modern pieces by avant-garde designer Rick Owens. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dian Hasan | Decembber 1, 2009

Architect Javier Sánchez and interior designer India Mahdavi, gave a contemporary conversion to a neo-classical building in Mexico City, transforming it into the cool Condesa DF boutique hotel.

Tucked between historic façades on a tree-lined road, the Condesa df hotel fuses the name and spirit of its bohemian surroundings with architect Javier Sánchez and interior design guru India Mahdavi’s inventive, playful simplicity. Read the rest of this entry »

Singapore is renowned as a finance, transportation, and convention hub in the heart of South East Asia. Home to a remarkable collection of world-class luxury business hotels of all the major international brands. Mostly larger hotels, some of which are well positioned as convention hotels. This multi-cultural modern place has been lacking what should’ve been second nature ~ smaller hotels with a personality.

The wait is over, in Singapore’s CBD lies a delightful urban gem: The Naumi.

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By Dian Hasan | October 9, 2009

In the automobile industry, any car buff will ask “what’s under the hood?”, while across the pond in Sunny Italy that question will also be accompanied by another “Who’s the designer?” Pininfarina, Giugiaro, Bertone, perhaps?

So what does that have to do with a boutique hotel converted from an 1890 red brick building in Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego, you may ask. Italian pedigree, that’s what! The Keating’s unusual interior – all splashed in a dominant red – comes from the same creative mind that designs the red hot Ferrari and Maserati.

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By Dian Hasan | October 7, 2009

Explora started life as Chile’s leading adventure tour operator, taking world travelers to witness her majestic – and diverse – landscapes that are distinctively different. Atacama Desert in the north and the world-famous Patagonia in the south that leads to the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego.

Evolving into hotels was a natural progression for Explora. And it opened its first – Hotel Salto Chico in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, in 1993. Following its success, Hotel de Larache opened five years later in the Atacama Desert, and in December 2007 the newest hotel, Posada de Mike Rapu, opened on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Posada Mike Rapu is Chile’s first LEED-certified property, Chile’s first when it opened.

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By Dian Hasan | October 5, 2009

They say white is the color of purity, and it never goes out of style. This hotel new hip boutique hotel in the capital of European Community, Brussels, certainly thinks so.

Part hotel, part art gallery, The White Hotel in Brussels features rooms outfitted with pieces by Belgian artists and designers. The hotel also has an online shop selling furniture and accessories.

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By Dian Hasan | October 1, 2009

Singapore is renowned as a finance, transportation, and convention hub in the heart of South East Asia. Home to a remarkable collection of world-class luxury business hotels of all the major international brands. Mostly larger hotels, some of which are well positioned as convention hotels. This multi-cultural modern place has been lacking what should’ve been second nature ~ smaller hotels with a personality.

The wait is over, in Singapore’s CBD lies a delightful urban gem: The Naumi.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Dian Hasan | September 29, 2009

Our lives of today seem to be an exercise in randomness. Even cool lodgings can sprout anywhere. Including the arid open plains of Texas. Or make that the desert part of Texas, in a little town called Marfa. It may be off the radar for virtually all travelers, bar those who know their Pop Art from their Pop Tarts! As this little town in Big Texas is not your granddad’s town, it makes up in Modern Art for what it lacks in size.

Welcome to The Thunderbird Hotel, in Marfa, Texas. A most unlikely place to find a cool hip hotel.

One art critic commended the hotel as being:

“Laid-back cowboy cool and desert views at this sleek design hotel in Marfa, Western Texas.”

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Another fine example of exciting things to come in the area of eco-oriented hotels. The proposed eco-hotel Hilton Bariloche in Argentina. The marriage of architecture – green architecture, that is – and the environment it’s taking advantage of is what’s interesting to see. How the “Green Movement” is affecting hotels and how they in turn go about to accommodate the growing “Green Lifestyle” of travelers seeking and supporting hotels whose mission are no longer service and profit, but increasingly summed into the 3 main traits of: 1. Profit, 2. People, and 3. Planet. Creating profitable businesses that engage the communities around them and respect (for a lack of a better term) the natural environment they are bestowed of caring for. Hence a hotel animal of a very different kind – one with a agreen one!

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Amid the vibrant movement to “Go Green” and create a “Green Lifestyle” it’s interesting to ponder about the future and peek into what’s in store. Especially in the world of travel, the hospitality industry is clearly at the forefront, fueled by the desire to accommodate the new “Green Lifestyle”, and Branding themselves accordingly. Knowing full well that discerning travelers are a pesky bunch. Additionally, Tourism is recognized as among the world’s biggest industry, with potentially the broadest economic multiplier effect. Here’s one look at what’s in store in eco-progressive Northern California, as reported by Tree Hugger. Transforming an old mining site into a cool eco retreat. Monterey Bay Shores Eco-Development.
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