What makes a great design hotel? It’s not any particular style, of course – this diverse bunch can attest to that. Or scope – one has only a single bedroom. All, however, have a keen sense of place and a vision that sets them apart from the pack. Here is our round up of the most innovative hotels to open since the millenium, from riads to agriturismos, members clubs and exclusive hideouts deep in the desert or high in the mountains...
The New York Edition
New York City, USA
‘With the Edition, we wanted to move away from that idea of unapproachable minimalism, which was prevalent in a lot of spaces in the early 2000s,’ says David Rockwell of the now iconic hotel he completed in 2015 in collaboration with Ian Schrager. ‘It had to be inviting.’ So, as with most Rockwell Group interiors, materials and textures were key, as was a palette of natural hues. With views of Madison Square Park and the Empire State Building, its 271 rooms are all intended as homes from home.
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The hotel lobby’s helix-shaped staircase and expansive steel fireplace may be strikingly memorable, but it’s the feeling of quiet luxury in the rooms that will stay with you long after you check out. Plus, if you want a similarly high-end stay in a certified NYC landmark, there’s The Times Square Edition (pictured below) – a hotel that channel’s the tourist spot’s glitzy past.
Stamba Hotel
Tbilisi, Georgia
Few hotels could make the list for their lobby alone, but then few make the statement of Stamba’s. The cavernous atrium, with its imposing Brutalist skeleton, is where the imaginative conversion of a former 1930s publishing house in Georgian capital Tbilisi really shines. A glass-bottomed swimming pool installed on the roof lets dappled light stream into the space, which is flanked by internal balconies that look out over mature greenery below. Where brickwork isn’t left exposed, walls are painted in moss green and denim blue.
For now, the hotel’s expressive spirit is unmatched in the city, but there’s plenty more to come. designhotels.com
Ett Hem
Stockholm, Sweden
Ett Hem might simply translate as ‘a home’, but few can claim an abode so stylish. The 12-room boutique hotel, masterfully coaxed from a 1910 Arts & Crafts townhouse in Stockholm’s Lärkstaden neighbourhood, still retains the intimacy of the exquisite private residence it must have once made.
Devoid of the vast atriums and anonymity of grand hotels, designer (and former ELLE Decoration editor) Ilse Crawford’s deftest trick is a series of genuinely inviting communal spaces, where lighting by Michael Anastassiades and bespoke furniture by her own Studioilse jostle with beautiful vintage finds. Ett Hem confirms that luxury doesn’t have to be loud – the honesty bar in the dining room says it all. etthem.se
Ion Adventure Hotel
Iceland
A hotel housed in an abandoned concrete barracks for a nearby power station might not sound a luxurious prospect, but anything slighter would feel lost in Iceland’s rugged, elemental landscape.
Two years after the country was unceremoniously put on the map by the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud, this architectural tour de force opened an hour from Reykjavik. Set on diagonal stilts at the foot of Hengill volcano – still active, for an extra thrill – Ion’s monolithic form rises out of the rocky hillside, sheltering a pool below and offering an uninterrupted panorama of lava fields. It also proved an early adopter of the luxury eco model, drawing on geothermal energy and local, sustainable materials. designhotels.com
La Granja
Ibiza
Though La Granja – simply ‘the farm’ – can't lay claim to the concept of Ibizan agriturismo, its distinct vision of pastoral life has proven irresistible. Conceived by Design Hotels founder Claus Sendlinger, the 10-room estate offers an insight into the earthier, epicurean side of the island, centred on a 300-year old farmhouse hewn from stone, slate and oiled ash.
Balearic tropes like whitewashed walls are traded for cooling dark grey, and rooms are bravely barren of televisions, frills of any kind – even air con – and largely free of furniture, save for wooden stools, cane pendants and beds draped in linen sheets. Its earnest, slow-living ethos and biodynamic bounty make a convincing case for going back to the land. lagranjaibiza.com
Il Sereno
Lake Como, Italy
The process of building a contemporary hotel on the shores of Lake Como – an area that hadn’t welcomed any new properties in decades – was a slow and delicate one. Thankfully, Spanish designer and architect Patricia Urquiola was undeterred.
For all its clean, vertical lines and use of natural materials (see the 30 waterfront suites clad in walnut timber), Il Sereno proved that a modern retreat could more than hold its own among the lake’s converted palazzos. The airy interior, filled with Urquiola’s sleek designs for Cassina, Molteni, B&B Italia and Kettal, is Italian through and through. serenohotels.com
Le Coucou
Méribel, France
Patrick Pariente and his two daughters, Kimberley Cohen and Leslie Kouhana, are the heart of luxury hotel chain Maison Pariente. With an enviable eye for detail and design, the family has become known for collaborating with some of the very best interior designers in the world, from Charles Zana to Pierre Yovanovitch. It is the latter who was called upon to add his trademark warmth and personality to the brand’s ski-in wood chalet Le Coucou.
Forget traditionally twee ski resorts – this is an alpine retreat for the aesthetically-minded holidaymaker. Rooms are colourful and considered (all with views across the Three Valleys), while facilities include a brand-new restaurant for 2023: Le Fumoir, which will serve elevated takes on alpine classics like raclette and tartiflette. It’s ideal for an apres-ski pick-me-up. Plus, when it comes to easing tired limbs after a day on the slopes, the spa at Le Coucou has a new selection of treatments by Tata Harper that are just the ticket. maisonpariente.com
Amangiri
Utah, US
Set in the arid expanse of Utah’s Canyon Point among majestic ochre mesas (the flat-topped rocky formations), Amangiri’s network of cubic concrete suites and pavilions presents an unorthodox vision of a desert oasis. More than 10 years here, it’s proven to be the Aman group’s most enduring image of luxurious isolation.
Architects Rick Joy, Marwan Al-Sayed and Wendell Burnette – who earned their stripes with striking, angular structures across neighbouring Arizona – conceived a design that speaks to the drama of its natural surrounds, framed by vistas from open-air terraces and the floor-to-ceiling windows of 34 monastic suites. New sister site Camp Sarika is set to be another bucket-list-topper. aman.com
El Fenn
Marrakech, Morocco
Though Marrakech has no shortage of plushly refurbished riads, none has captured our collective imagination in quite the same way as El Fenn. Sealed off from the hubbub of the Medina, its maze of shaded courtyards, lush terraces and rooftop plunge pools are steeped in bohemian flair.
The 31 rooms and suites were individually designed from the outset – back when this was no given among boutique hotels – and painted in rich shades of crimson, turquoise, emerald and magenta, with striking tiled floors, hand-carved plasterwork and fluffy Berber rugs underfoot. This autumn, the retreat will unveil the results of a long-awaited expansion, with new suites, pool, wine cellar, yoga studio and orangery. el-fenn.com
Shoreditch House
London, UK
The Soho House brand was already in full swing when it opened Shoreditch House, though this east London outpost can take much of the credit for the renaissance of the members’ club model. Here was a hotel that you might have spent the day in before you knew it, with myriad cosy spots to mingle with a crowd of creative locals that often outnumber the travellers.
Originally outfitted by British designer Tom Dixon back in 2007, it has since been revamped by an in-house design team created to bring the boutique chain’s successful formula to a pacy schedule of new Houses across the globe. sohohouse.com
Trunk (House)
Tokyo, Japan
Rarely does a new opening redefine boundaries quite like Trunk (House). The restful one-room Tokyo guesthouse, which followed a 15-room boutique by the hotel group across town, is a carefully crafted ode to a traditional salon seen through the lens of a modish lifestyle concept.
Once a geisha training house, its renovated interior reveals far more than a hotel distilled down to its essential parts: alongside space to sleep four, there’s a tea ceremony room and a view onto a small but perfectly formed garden. The showstopper, of course, is the diminutive red-walled disco – said to be the smallest in Japan – replete with illuminated dance floor, karaoke machine and requisite soundproofing. trunk-house.com
