A marvel of engineering and architecture, your stay at this property will be the talk of the town. Whether it be pioneering new hospitality concepts, With Opening a hotel that pushes the boundaries with groundbreaking design and giving back to the community takes genius and courage — the work of a true visionary.
During Free Spirit Month in July, we’ll be showcasing a South Australian lodge rebuilt after the 2020 bushfires, crescent-shaped huts in an eco-friendly resort in Bali, a monastery-turned-luxury hotel in Nice and more.
Southern Ocean Lodge
When Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island in southern Australia reopened last December, it marked the resilience of the human spirit and the rebirth of the island and its wildlife. The 2020 bushfires that ravaged Australia left half the island burned and tens of thousands of animals dead. The lodge was demolished. Founders James and Hayley Barrier had sold their resort portfolio to a private equity group in 2019, but stayed on as consultants to help rebuild the lodge. The rebuilt lodge, a replica of the original by architect Max Pritchard, remains a prime example of sustainable luxury resorts in the Southern Hemisphere. While the lodge offers unobstructed views of Antarctica across the Southern Ocean, it takes nothing away from the rugged southwest coast, not even its raw beauty, as eco-warriors initially feared.
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Bamboo Indah
John and Cindy Hardy, who run a successful jewellery business in Bali, founded the sustainability-focused Green School and eco-friendly resort, Bamboo Indah, the latter of which has recently been renovated. The design of this resort from these two creatives is fresh: antique Javanese houses have been restored from bamboo and buildings are built on stilts, allowing them to move with minimal impact on the earth. Set on three hectares, the accommodation is an architectural marvel; we love the Moon House, a crescent-shaped structure made from bamboo and copper that looks like a giant seed pod.
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L’Hotel du Couvin
Located in Nice’s Old Town, a 400-year-old monastery turned luxury hotel, L’Hôtel du Couvin, is the 10-year passion project of renowned hotelier Valéry Grégo, who invested €100 million (S$135 million) in the project. Inspired by the communal lifestyle of the monastery (L’Hôtel du Couvin has 88 rooms and underground Roman baths), he populated the space with a restaurant, an archive centre from the Ecole de Nice, neighbouring art movements, a bakery, a pharmacy and a vegetable and fruit garden. The interiors, in a “neo-monastic” style, are austere at first glance but on closer inspection reveal high quality and attention to detail.
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One & Only One The Abbeel
Located at One Zabeel, Dubai’s most prestigious address, the building is set to be an extraordinary design. To ensure One&Only One Zabeel achieves iconic status, Japanese architects Nikken Sekkei have linked the two asymmetrical towers with the world’s longest cantilever beam, standing 100 metres above ground, which also houses Dubai’s longest infinity pool at 120 metres. To complement the simple yet striking structure, interior designer Jean-Michel Gathy, whose work includes One&Only resorts in the Maldives and Montenegro as well as Aman New York, has endowed the rooms with a refined, clean elegance, including those facing the Burj Khalifa.
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Soneva Secret
Hoteliers Sonu and Eva Malmström Shivdasani, who came up with one of the most imitated hospitality concepts, “No Shoes, No News,” have once again pushed themselves beyond their limits in the Maldives. Soneva Secret has been 30 years in the making and, like Shivdasani’s other resorts, it blends luxury, attention to detail and social consciousness in equal measure. At Soneva Secret, the sustainability checklist is ticked and seclusion is guaranteed. As the location is so pristine, the ocean’s Big Five are frequent sightings. The jewel in the crown, the Castaway Cabin, floats in the middle of the ocean completely untethered and can be towed to different locations. Guests can wake up in a different location every day. How about an unparalleled travel experience?
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Notes:
The information in this article is accurate as of the publication date.
