Many top architects have diversified from apartments, tower blocks, civic buildings and celebrity homes into the realms of accommodation. With briefs from hospitality giants to conceive attention-getting hotels and resorts, the stellar likes of Frank Gehry, the late Zaha Hadid and Kengo Kuma, named the world‘s most influential architect in 2021 by Time magazine, have been involved in outstanding properties at destinations as diverse as Spain, Macau and Japan. Whether a South African safari lodge, a coastal camp in Sri Lanka or a modernist reinvention in Brazil, these 10 architectural triumphs are drawcards for design-centric travellers.
Singita Lebombo Lodge, South Africa
While most safari accommodation is set low and favours a rustic design, this contemporary iteration upends the trend. The 15-suite property, masterminded by Cape Town-based GAPP Architects, with interiors directed by the brand’s long-term designer, Boyd Ferguson, overlooks the Singita group’s concession in Kruger National Park. Sited atop a craggy bluff beside the N’wanetsi River, it’s both a landmark and watchtower for wildlife viewing and star gazing. The decor is an organic mix of bleached timbers and huge windows, and the concept was inspired by eagles’ nests built into the cliff face over the banks of the N’wanetsi, resulting in a sense of “floating between river and sky”.
Patina Maldives
Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan, of award-winning studio MK27, designed this resort’s layout of 90 villas (one, two or three bedrooms) and 20 studios with a low, harmonious profile to “align with the sea’s horizon”. There’s a seamless indoor-outdoor feel, neutral colours and organic materials, all in tune with the environment of this fragile Indian Ocean nation. Located on the Fari Islands of North Male Atoll, the 2021-opened Patina Maldives is a member of Design Hotels, a collective of properties with strong architectural credentials.
Casa TO, La Punta Zicatela, Puerto Escondido, Mexico
Formed from concrete in a neo-brutalist style, this new project by Ludwig Godefroy is a nine-suite retreat in the Oaxaca region of the Pacific coast where guests are invited to be “immersed in a state of total contemplation”. Cashed-up surf nomads are likely to be core guests but the architecture itself is a drawcard. Godefroy acknowledges the inspiration of Oaxacan temples in his reinterpretation of traditional elements but the vaulted infinity pool, terraced solarium and ultra-private accommodation nod to contemporary pleasures. Mexico City-based hospitality design specialist Godefroy collaborated with local craftspeople, particularly carpenters and stonemasons, for the massive undertaking.
Amangiri, Canyon Point, Utah, US
This desert redoubt, a 2009 project by architects Rick Joy, Marwan Al-Sayed and Wendell Burnett, appears as if it’s been moulded from the Earth. The 44-suite property, hailed as “an ode to Navajo culture”, occupies a 24ha estate at the base of a monumental sandstone rock formation in a valley cradled within the greatest concentration of national parks in the US. Concrete walls, angular minimalism, sunken courtyards, rock archways and laneways designed as “slot canyons” lead to two accommodation wings; a 10-tent annexe, Camp Sarika, is set at the foot of a desert mesa, angled for sunset views.
Morpheus, Macau
This sci-fi extravaganza by the late, great Zaha Hadid opened in 2018. Morpheus is a triumphant 40-storey, 772-room zigzag behemoth within the City of Dreams resort complex. Her design features a sculptural volume of orbital shapes, voids and curved forms and, while inspiration for Macau’s over-the-top casino-centric hotels typically comes from elsewhere, Hadid’s philosophy was for a cohesive style of architecture “expressly” of the destination. Among its characteristics are the world’s first free-form exoskeleton, made from structural steel coated in aluminium, and sky bridges crossing the upper atrium.
Hotel Inntel, Zaandam, The Netherlands
The facade of this 160-room property in Zaandam’s reinvigorated town centre features a jumble of about 70 small, stacked houses, not unlike a giant Lego construction. Dutch architect Wilfried van Winden, of WAM Architecten Delft, known for his fusion style of old and new, created the look in 2010, based on typical wooden homes of the Zaan region and using four shades of traditional green and jolts of blue for the 11-storey timber and cement-clad building, which has protruding eaves and mismatched windows. Despite the distinctly odd appearance, there are grown-up facilities and contemporary guestrooms with murals and quirky design touches referencing the locale’s history.
inntelhotelsamsterdamzaandam.nl
ONE@Tokyo Hotel, Oshiage, Tokyo
Kengo Kuma, designer of the national stadium for the Tokyo Olympics, and named the world’s most influential architect by Time magazine in 2021, created this 142-room urban surprise package in 2017, with an entry framed in an installation of treelike timber planks. His minimalist style plays with “capturing” nature, incorporating “green lungs”, including atriums filled with climbing plants, and fusing industrial concepts such as exposed formwork. For this 10-storey tower, with blunt, otherwise unassuming lines, he also placed treelike forms across interiors and added an open rooftop garden with faux fencing and 180-degree views that encompass the landmark Tokyo Skytree tower.
Wild Coast Tented Lodge, Sri Lanka
A collaboration between Sri Lankan, Dutch and British designers in 2017, this coastal eco-resort close to Yala National Park, famous for its leopard population, is earthed in its surroundings. The 28 “cocoon tents” have arched fabric forms that merge in form and colour with the site’s rocks and boulders, while communal buildings are clad in reclaimed teak shingles over bamboo membranes and sit equally lightly on the landscape. It’s a splendid example of merging with nature and leaving the faintest of footprints. Fun fact: elephant dung and clay, plus excavated stone and locally quarried quartz, were used for interior formwork.
Hotel Marques de Riscal, Rioja, Spain
Frank Gehry’s controversial Museo Guggenheim Bilbao (1997) in the Basque country put the city on the design map. The Canadian-American architect followed up with this equally daring hotel (2006) at the Marques de Riscal wine complex in nearby Rioja province, claiming his trademark undulating waves and fragmented planes reflect the “spirit” of the region. The hotel’s facade of titanium roofing ribbons in pink, silver and gold is intended to mimic the colours of the winery’s blends and foil bottle caps. A member of the Marriott portfolio, there are 61 guestrooms and suites split between two buildings joined by a raised walkway. Gehry has described the fantastical look as a “marvellous creature, with its hair flying in all directions, launching itself over the vineyards”. Seeing is believing.
Rosewood Sao Paulo, Brazil
This new stunner, a decade in the works from maternity hospital to a high-rise of 160 guestrooms and 100 residences, is the one to watch in 2023. Jean Nouvel is the architect of the “vertical forest” tower addition with overlapping trellises. Philippe Starck’s interiors pay homage to the abstract curves of Oscar Niemeyer, incorporating handcrafted touches by local artisans. The neighbourhood is Bela Vista, home to museums and boulevards, and the hotel anchors the Cidade Matarazza cultural and retail precinct of redeveloped early 20th-century buildings due to fully open late next year. It’s Rosewood’s first property in South America and “sense of place” collaborations abound, from commissioned artworks and fittings to a focus on regional food served at venues that include a faux log cabin.