The Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola is responsible for the interior design of the recently opened Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona.

“The project reflects the open, cosmopolitan character of the great Mediterranean city where the hotel stands, along with the unmistakeable seal of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

The linear simplicity of the building, which was once the head offices of a bank, lends itself perfectly to the clean, balanced interior design by Urquiola.”

The luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel chain has unveiled its plans for its first five-star hotel development in Moscow, Russia.

Designed by architect HOK the 250-room “upside-down” hotel will require customers to check-in at sky lobby level affording views over Red Square and the Kremlin.

The hotel will be located on Tverskaya Road and will see the redevelopment of an historic building, originally constructed in the early 19th Century as a private manor house.

The Mandarin Royal Hotel, a 44-storey luxury hotel in the center of Beijing burned completely yesterday in a massive fire during the final celebrations for the Chinese New Year.

The luxury hotel has been under construction for 7 years and was due to open later this year.

There are some suggestions that a firework may have started the blaze.

Touted to be the most expensive flat in the world, One Hyde Park penthouse is estimated at $200 million.

The most expensive penthouse apartments will feature bullet proof windows, purified air systems and “panic rooms” and everyone on site will have access to an underground passage leading to the nearby Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Alhougth the image is not real, but a computer representation, it does give a view of what it will look like when completed in 2010.