The Story is in the Building Itself

MEXICO
On the coast of Mexico, near the town of Zihuatanejo, a utopian development known as MUSA unfolds over a mile of shoreline and 177 acres of palm groves. Within this sprawling landscape is Hotelito, a 13-room beachfront property defined by clean lines and a natural approach to minimal design. Andrés Saavedra, one of the hotel’s Originals, and his team at Andrés Saavedra Design oversaw both the architectural concept and interior design, with a primary focus on integrating the buildings into the existing environment without altering, affecting, or impacting the land and its ecosystems. A low-density plan allows the hotel to operate entirely on solar power, while the mixture of Mexican modernism with principles of wabi-sabi results in a distinctly unique topical modernist vibe.

IVORY COAST
The first boutique hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, La Maison Palmier is a leafy oasis of contemporary design with vintage panache. Nestled amongst 200 varieties of palm trees are nine low-slung concrete structures designed by architect Désiré M’Bengue, an Abidjan native. Each of the individual yet harmonious buildings open up to reveal high ceilings, custom terrazzo flooring, and floor-to-ceiling windows, while garden paths wind through the grounds, connecting the structures with a contemporary and residential feel. At the center of the experience are public spaces like the restaurant, bar, and sparkling pool checkered in green marble, which draw in locals with their lively scenes.

GREECE
Offering unbeatable views of the Acropolis, Athens’s Perianth Hotel occupies a striking modernist structure from the 1930s renovated by the local architecture and design firm K-Studio. For inspiration, K-Studio looked to the Athenian modernist movement, resulting in the integration of terrazzo floors, slim black-metal frames, and marble furniture elements. Glass walls were also created in response to the building’s trapezoidal shape, allowing light to enter from the shaft of the building into the lounge areas at the core of each floor. Other details continue to reflect and enhance the iconic building: Curved lounge chairs, for example, are both simple and intricate, aligning with the unique characteristics of the building’s exterior. 

Just a few hours southwest, in Arcadia, on the Peloponnese peninsula, K-Studio transformed a 20th-century neoclassical sanatorium into Manna, a stunning luxury mountain retreat. To preserve and simultaneously breathe new life into the heritage-listed monument, the studio carried out a historically accurate renovation in collaboration with Monogon Office for Architecture and CS Architecture. Together, they traced the intentions of the building’s original architects and integrated them within a concept for the hotel to have a contemporary future. The result is an abundance of preserved grey limestone, wood, and mosaic flooring paired with newly added, locally sourced stone and terrazzo as well as chestnut panels. Also abounding are many original elements, including high ceilings in guestrooms and iron doors with ornate muntins.

Elsewhere in Greece, on the island of Zakynthos, Olea All Suite Hotel is a tropical-modernist escape that frames the northeast coast in all its glory. Guided by the island’s landscape and the calming effect of water, the Athens-based studio Block722 architects+ created a sprawling property of 93 suites revolving around a 4,000-square-meter pool resembling a lake. Thatched rooves, oak wood, and bamboo contrast the clean lines and concrete of the suites’ cubic structures, while water flows throughout: Small streams and pools meander between island-like clusters of buildings, communal areas under skylights, hidden gardens, and age-old olive trees. 

PORTUGAL
Set high on a hill with incredible 180-degree views of Lisbon, architect Samuel Torres de Carvalho transformed a former warehouse into the stunning terraced hotel Memmo Príncipe Real. With glass walls, the ground floor appears transparent, making the reception area, restaurant, and terrace feel like extensions of the public square beyond—a place that is also reflected through the architect’s use of the same limestone that pervades the square in the hotel’s public areas. What’s more, the seamless quality of the ground floor gives the geometric form of the upper floors the appearance of levitating in the city air, looking out over the neighborhoods below.

GERMANY
To create Hamburg’s first Design Hotel, Gastwerk Hotel Hamburg, local architect Klaus Peter Lange and his team at Architekten Lange & Partner carried out a painstakingly sensitive conversion of a 19th-century power station. The result is a lofty urban haven where a warm contemporary character meets original industrial elements, including redbrick walls and a monstrous green industrial machine—both of which are under strict preservation codes. Light floods into spaces through large, arched windows, while the atrium-lobby—located where 5,000 tons of coal were once stored—stretches toward the sky, with the ceiling an astonishing five-stories high and suspended bridges leading to guestrooms.

Farther south, in Gonnesweiler, Germany, Seezeitlodge Hotel & Spa connects guests to the beautiful surrounding landscape through an abundance of natural materials. With an architectural concept overseen by Graft Gesellschaft von Architekten, the hotel’s slatted wooden façade was created with charred larch, giving the building a silvery-black shine and making it appear as it if it were a natural part of the topography. The property’s Celtic sauna village was arranged according to documented earth energies, and the primary structure was carefully placed not only to maximize stunning lake views but also with the rising and setting sun in mind.