The Beach House at Manafaru Maldives

Set on the idyllic 35-acre island of Manafaru, The Beach House sits at the most northerly tip of the Maldives, in the pristine, lagoon-ringed Haa Alifu Atoll, little explored by foreigners and totally un-polluted by the noise of passing speedboats.

The Beach House offers unparalleled luxury to the discerning few :

Each of the 68 villas and suites offer a private pool, complete privacy and a personal butler to pre-empt and exceed your expectations.

All of the villas feature every modern technological convenience, while maintaing traditional Maldivian style World-class cuisine from all corners of the world combined with countless on- and off-shore recreational facilities round up the truly supreme character of the The Beach House at Manafaru Maldives.

In addition to luxury suites he resort also features a fully equipped hi-tech gymnasium, tennis and badminton courts, beach volleyball, billiards, table tennis, a free form and infinity pool plus a PADI diving centre.

Seven nights at The Beach House start at from £1,779 per person.

Le Provençal Hotel on the Côte d'Azur to reopen as luxury apartments

This post is really meaningful to me. When I was a student, I used to live in Juan Les Pins, everyday, on my way to school, I was fascinated by this huge abandoned hotel and I really wanted to explore it. Le Provençal was the hotel that actually embodied a golden age on the Côte d'Azur.

“The 256-bedroom Art Deco palace and its "bright tan prayer rug of a beach" were, in the 1930s and 1940s, the symbol of the French Riviera. Coco Chanel and Marilyn Monroe ranked among the sun-worshippers; and on one balmy July evening, Ella Fitzgerald threw open an upstairs window and sang to the crowds at the world-famous Jazz à Juan festival in the park below. […] Built by an American millionaire Frank J Gould in 1925, with tennis club and jetty, restaurants, bars and luxury suites, the hotel marked a new way of life: la dolce vita.”

(copyright : Telegraph)

The famed Art Deco hotel on the Côte d'Azur has been derelict since 1973 and is now being turned into a luxury apartment building. I was sure they would never leave this hotel to squatters and pigeons forever and was dreaming of living in this dream hotel in the future… Too bad.. It is a little too early, I’m still not rich enough to buy any of the luxury apartment!

The London Telegraph reports that Developer Cyril Dennis is transforming the 45,000-sq.ft. beachside property, built in 1925, into 56 luxury units :

“Some have 360-degree views, and indoor pools, as well as outdoor pools and gardens; they will be fitted out with Porche kitchens, marble floors, Turkish baths, aquariums and separate staff lifts and entrances. Music, heating, lighting, flowers and shopping can be computer-controlled. Landscaped gardens, replanted each season, will feature fountains, ponds and an infinity pool with 360m terrace”

He describes the Provençal as "the last jewel in the Cap d'Antibes," an area where top-drawer villas now go for over $200 million thanks to an influx of superrich (Russian) oligarchs. The luxury apartments will cost between €2million and €40million ($60 million)…

Via telegraph.co.uk

Hotel Marques de Riscal, Spain

This ribbon-like construction is the roof to a unique hotel in Alava, Spain
Designed by renowned architect Frank O. Gehry, The new, landmark Hotel Marqués de Riscal, is nestled in the “City of Wine.

The winery of Vinos Herederos del Marques de Riscal is one of the oldest wineries in the region and as a component of an overall plan to redefine and invigorate its public image, Marques de Riscal commissioned the design of a small building intended to provide a unique experience for visitors to the winery.

The hotel has 43 guest rooms, including 11 suites that feature a modern, comfortable atmosphere and unique design, all with wireless internet, LCD TV's and marble bathrooms.

Of course you will find a wine tasting room as well as an indoor swimming pool, steam room, fitness centre, Jacuzzi, invigorating shower, and 14 treatment rooms with wide variety of "wine therapy" massages and treatments. All products are made of grape’s extract!

Hotel Unique, Sao Paulo, Brazil

A reference in modern architecture and originality, Unique's spacey, green copper façade alone makes this hotel unlike any other. The imposing hotel, shaped like a modern Noah’s Arkbalances on two thin concrete walls, which anchor the semi-circular monolith to the ground.

Located in the well-heeled residential area of Jardins, and just meters from Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo's largest green area, the building rises like a gracious ocean liner in dry-dock.

The funny thing is that when pharmaceutical heir Jonas Siaulys decided at the last minute to scrap a shopping mall project and build a boutique hotel instead, his architect Ruy Ohtake delivered new sketches within 48 hours. “I think he realized that the possibilities for a hotel were greater than for a mall,” says Siaulys. “And he knew that we’d give him creative freedom.”

Shielding dark glass and a desert garden of mini, sand-toned cubes of rock, palms and agaves are the first impressionsthat the hotel offers. Dramatic high internal spaces such as the lobby are excentuated and illuminated with walls of beige marble, and sharp, geometric themes make the spectacle even grander.

In the rooms, the bathrooms borrow a page from the driver’s manual of a Ferrari convertible. Pop open the vertically sliding divider and guests can soak in the bathtub with a full view of the bedroom and television. Pop it closed for privacy.

And when the time comes to go for a swim, backstrokes can be done in a slender red pool on the top floor. The sun deck offers a privileged view of São Paulo’s imposing skyline.

Source : designhotel
A great article about Unique Hotel

Morgan Plaza Beijing

The Morgan Plaza is a super-luxury 7 star hotel under construction in Beijing, China. Although it was set to be finished last month’s, there has been no official confirmation of it completion yet but it definitely going to be completed in time for the Beijing Olympics.

When completed it is rumoured to be possibly more luxurious than the Burj Al Arab and has been considered to be the official landmark of China, still in competition with the Shanghai World Financial Center.

The plaza will contain two pavilions, a temple, the world’s best Japanese restaurant and a 600 meter long corridor.

Via overseaspropertymall

Bridge Suite at the Atlantis Resort

The "Bridge Suite" ranks third in terms of most expensive hotel rooms in the world, at $25,000. Even with its large price tag, the suite currently has a five-year waiting list, and requires guests to stay at least four nights in the suite. It is located in the span that connects the two Royal Towers.

This is the hotel's presidential suite, which has ten rooms with more than 5,000 square feet (460 m²) of living space. The Bridge Suite comes with its own butler and cook, and the kitchen has its own entrance so that the staff never bothers the guest. The suite include gold chandeliers, a baby grand piano, and balconies on both sides.

The architecture and décor feature murals, sculptures, and fountains. The Great Hall of Waters lobby has a 70-foot (21 m)-high domed ceiling covered in golden shells, and opens on one side to the Marina. The other side leads to underwater streets filled with fish and Atlantean artifacts. The top four floors of the Royal Towers are known as the Imperial Club.

Via wikipedia

One-Room Hotel in Paris

Hotel Everland, the creation of Swiss artists Sabina Lang & Daniel Baumann, on the roof of Palais de Tokyo is an art consisting of an actual one-room hotel. It offers 1970's-style glamour, a turquoise-tiled bathroom, a record player with a collection of vinyl discs, & a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower but remember no TV.

If you are interested in the room in the hotel, you can actually stay in it & is offered at a price of 333 Euros per night during weekdays & 444 Euros at weekends. But do remember it will remain atop the Palais de Tokyo until the end of 2008 only.

Via Crooked Brains

A Louis Vuitton Store Inside a Marriott

Hotels are slowly moving beyond the bar, nightclub and restaurant trend to add some hip retail spaces in their properties. Of course, this is nothing new as some hotels have been doing this already for a long time. But what is news is the report of a Louis Vuitton store opening inside the JW Marriott Bucharest Hotel.

The store will open in June and offer customers the standard LV leather goods as well as the opportunity to design their own travel trunk based on their "requirements and taste."

As for why LV would open in a Marriott, international senior VP for LV said :
"We looked on Calea Victoriei and on other boulevards in Bucharest but chose the Marriott because it is a visually safe and controlled environment, where you know who your neighbours are and do not risk having a sex shop open next door."

Via hotelchatter

Lunar beauty to bedazzle Azerbaijan skyline

Heerim Architects has attempted to reinvent the skyscraper beyond the traditional with two lunar inspired projects in the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan. The Korean firm has dreamed up Full Moon Bay and Caspian Plus that includes Crescent Place on neighbouring peninsulas in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku that look on to the Caspian Sea - the two projects on opposite extremes of the same bay acting as gateway markers.

Hotel Full Moon is essentially a disc with rounded edges and a hole in one of the top corners that appears radically different to the view depending on the angle it is seen from. The frontage thanks to the bulging centre makes it appear more like a glass death star whilst the side profile is more than a little gherkinesque. Changing appearance depending on the view is reinforced by the cladding treatment the architect has selected.

The front will have a glass diagrid whilst the back will be covered with hexagonal honeycombs. This main building will be a 35 storey luxury hotel with 104,182 square metres of space for only 382 rooms, a relatively small amount of rooms given the sheer size of the internal space on offer. It will reach a maximum height of 158.68 metres.

The hotel is linked via a zoomorphically shaped podium that snakes curvaceously around the boundaries of the site to two residential apartment blocks entitled Palace of Wind 1 and 2. Acting as the counterpoint to Hotel Full Moon is Hotel Crescent, part of the Caspian Plus redevelopment that stands as a curving arch similar to a crescent moon.

The arch-like nature of the building is revealed by the fact that the structure isn't a pure crescent on its inside relying on more regularly shaped columns to help provide it with support. At 32 floors tall it will also be a luxury hotel, this time with 221 rooms. There will also be 128 serviced apartments in the building. Floor space will 128,140 square metres. Behind it will stand a further four tall buildings, three of which will be residential with the tallest of the quartet being a 43 floor office building standing 203 metres tall. Heerim Architects have not long been established in Azerbaijan.

They only opened their office in the country in July 2007 and yet have already secured these two major projects that face transforming the capital of one of the world's fastest growing economies.

Via skyscrapernews

The flying luxury hotel of tomorrow

This is not a Blimp. It's a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel. It's the Aeroscraft, and when it's completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their well-appointed staterooms.

Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft's weight. The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body-driven by huge rearward propellers-generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising. During takeoff and landing, six turbofan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent.

This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2010. Pasternak says several cruise ship companies have expressed interest in the project, and for good reason: The craft would have a range of several thousand miles and, with an estimated top speed of 174 mph, could traverse the continental U.S. in about 18 hours. During the flight, passengers would peer at national landmarks just 8,000 feet below or, if they weren't captivated by the view, the cavernous interior would easily accommodate such amenities as luxury staterooms, restaurants, even a casino.

Tominimize noise, the aft-mounted propellers will be electric, powered by a renewable source such as hydrogen fuel cells. A sophisticated buoyancy-management system will serve the same purpose as trim on an airplane, allowing for precise adjustments in flight dynamics to compensate for outside conditions and passenger movement. The automated system will draw outside air into compartments throughout the ship and compress it to manage onboard weight.

The company envisions a cargo-carrying version that could deliver a store's worth of merchandise from a centralized distribution center straight to a Wal-Mart parking lot or, because the helium-filled craft will float, a year's worth of supplies to an offshore oil rig. "You can land on the snow, you can land on the water, It's a new vision of what can be done in the air."

Source : CNN