To the verticalForestis, Brixen, Italy
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Perched at the height of the canopy of the Ploseberg forest, the Forestis, dating from 1912…
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… was completed with a contemporary extension by architect Armin Sader.
This new 5-star refuge perched at an altitude of 1,800 meters has naturally found its place in the majestic landscapes of South Tyrol. It revives an old sanatorium dating from 1912, completed with a contemporary extension by local architect Armin Sader: a carbon-neutral construction, made of glass, wood and stone from the region, heated with renewable energies. Three towers stand like trees of unequal height in the middle of the Ploseberg forest. Their broken lines echo those of the mountain peaks that rise up in front of them: a spectacular panorama, to be admired in full frame from the locavore restaurant as well as from the spa with 100% natural care products and the indoor-outdoor swimming pool. , or the 62 stylishly designed rooms, including two huge penthouses with their own swimming pool on the roof terrace.
From €720 per night in a suite, dinner included. forestis.it
The feet in waterPalafitte, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
On the lake or on dry land, guests of the Palafitte will be spoiled for choice. This address, built for the 2002 Swiss National Exhibition, offers an unparalleled experience of the country’s largest lake expanse. On the shore, 14 pavilions reveal a breathtaking panorama, including from the bathtub, thanks to a removable wall. The piles, on which the 24 lake suites are erected, evoke ancient remains of this type discovered in the region. The design, entrusted to the architects Hofmann and Gailloud, although very modern, is in total harmony with the calm waters of Neuchâtel. From the terrace, it’s almost like being on the deck of a boat and you just have to go down the ladder to enjoy privileged access to the lake. In summer, kayaking, paddle or water skiing allow those who wish to extend the discovery.
From €290 per night. palafitte.ch
In suspension Biosphere, Treehotel, Harads, Sweden
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The Biosphere room, set in the heart of the Lappish forest…
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…is surrounded by 350 nesting boxes…
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… a lesson in architecture and ornithology.
Located less than 30 kilometers from the Arctic Circle, in the Lappish forest, the Treehotel inaugurated the Biosphere this summer, a spectacular room perched in the trees designed by Bjarke Ingels, a genius of Danish architecture. At 35 meters high, the hosts sleep within a spherical structure made up of 350 nesting boxes. By this architectural gesture, the designer wished to remind the usefulness of these small cabins for the birds and to encourage to take again this ancestral country tradition. The materials used do not contain chemical substances and no trees were uprooted for the project. Since 2004, the owners of the Treehotel have invited the elite of Scandinavian architecture to design projects for rooms and suites: Bolle Tham and Martin Videgard imagined a mirror cube in which nature is infinitely reflected; wiser, the Snohetta office has designed a traditional Nordic house with modern lines, raising it in the pines. In all cases, each of the huts tends to reduce its impact on the environment as much as possible.
From €1,235 per night in the Biosphere room, €600 in the other units in the trees and €140 in the guest house. treehotel.se/en
Car chase NH Torino Lingotto Congress, Turin, Italy
It is a flagship of the industrial era: built in Turin between 1917 and 1923 by Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, the former factory and headquarters of Fiat covers 220,000 square meters with, symbolic and very popular, a runway test that occupies the entire surface of the roof of the workshops! Two straight lines of 443 meters connected by parabolic bends then make up a perfect racing circuit for testing new racing cars. Supervised by Renzo Piano, twelve years of titanic work were necessary to rehabilitate and restructure the whole, and restore all its splendor to the building. The rooms – with high ceilings – of the NH hotel occupy the old vertical assembly lines which, complemented by large bay windows, allow natural light to abound. Shopping galleries as well as the exhibition spaces of the Agnelli Foundation complete the whole.
From €76 per night. nh-hotels.com
prodigious waters Pedras Salgadas, Bornes de Aguiar, Portugal
One hour from Porto, this 20-hectare thermal estate has seen the country’s elite pass by in the past, including the king himself. When the properties of its springs are revealed, this corner of nature becomes a popular vacation spot and sees the sprout of several hotels, and even a casino in an elegant 1910 mansion. A century later, the historic baths are resurrected by the eminence Portuguese Alvaro Siza and transformed into a modern spa. Then, in 2012, a pioneering hotel concept was born, signed Luis Rebelo de Andrade: geometric shelters in wood and slate scattered in the park. The amazing snake houses revisit the tree house, in a minimalist version, with their suspended rooms open to nature thanks to a large circular window. The eco-houses, on one level, with terrace, literally blend into the forest. Or when architecture becomes one with nature.
From €170 per night. pedrasalgadaspark.com
See Kent again The Retreat, Dungeness Beach, United Kingdom
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The Pobble House (The Retreat), an expandable house…
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… in three units.
Since the 2010s, a handful of British architects have been having a field day in Kent, along Dungeness beach, to imagine contemporary single-storey residences. Creation, renovation of old fishermen’s huts or development of old railway relays, all opportunities are welcome. Among the most notable achievements is the Pobble House (baptized The Retreat) by architect Guy Hollaway: nested one inside the other, three units in rusty metal mesh, gray cement and silver larch make up a trio of interconnected spaces which accommodate up to ten people. Further along the beach, you can see the black rubber-covered house by Simon Conder Associates or the tar-wrapped residence designed by Nord Architecture.
From €1,641 per week. Booking on airbnb.f r or coolstays.com
corner stone 7132 Hotel, Vals, Switzerland
It is the absolute haunt. Centerpiece signed by the Swiss architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize, Peter Zumthor, in 1998, the thermal baths of Vals illustrate the philosophy of this craftsman builder who imagines buildings with parsimony, taking all his time, in a hand-to-hand passionate body with raw materials. Discreet masterpiece anchored in the canton of Graubünden, the thermal baths are discovered like a maze of pools, set in concrete and quartz, which seem dug out of the rock. Throughout the spaces, plays of natural light give the perspectives a sacred dimension.
Aficionados of avant-garde architecture stay at Hotel 7132: if the bases of the complex were signed by Peter Zumthor in 1996, his vision was enriched by the contribution of the Japanese Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma who modernized the rooms using Of wood. Next door is 7132 Houses of Architects, whose rooms are designed by Peter Zumthor, Kengo Kuma, Tadao Ando and American Thom Mayne.
From €697 per night. 7132 therm.com
Esthete hut Villa La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Reparade, France
Renowned for his industrialized houses that can be dismantled, Jean Prouvé designed, in 1944, ingenious cabins to rehouse the victims of Lorraine after the war. These 6 by 6 meter wooden emergency habitats were then the embodiment of the humanist thought of the “architect of better days”. They are now the Holy Grail for a handful of learned but privileged aesthetes willing to shell out 2,800 euros to spend the night there. Curious destiny. Carefully rearranged for its new function by the architectural firm Rogers Stirk Harbor + Partners, villa number 30 is the archetype of the nomadic house reduced to the essentials: a bed, a bench, a bookcase, a seat and a school. The furniture, mainly made of wood, is flexible and removable, in the spirit of the original design – electricity, hot water and the extraordinary setting of Villa La Coste in addition.
From €2,800 per night. villalacoste.com
Together, that’s all Silent Living, Portugal
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La Casa na Terra, near Monsaraz…
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… blends in with nature.
Initially, each house was thought of as a family haunt: an essential, purist place to live, a collection of shared emotions. Made in Portugal from ancestral materials (exterior walls in wood, brick, thatched roofs and floors in terracotta or covered with sand), these neo-cabins allow you to live in immersion with nature. A philosophy of life since declined by the architect Manuel Aires Mateus through a series of places scattered throughout the territory, where the days pass by feet in the sand near Comporta (in one of the four houses Casas na Areia ) or in an old fishermen’s hut (Cabanas no Rio). We forget the time that passes in the Alentejo (Casa do Tempo) or we immerse ourselves underground, at the edge of a lake, near Monsaraz (Casa na Terra).
From €400 per night (3 nights min.). silentliving.pt
Post-industrial Dexamenes, Amaliada, Greece
At the end of the 1920s, the grape trade animated the western coast of the Peloponnese: opposite the island of Zathynkos, the Dexamenes factory had its hours of glory. Evidenced today by its brutalist architecture and huge storage tanks transformed into a hotel of the most contemporary. Lightened of its industrial past by the Greek agency K-Studio, the site is reborn in a refined way with its 35 rooms and suites installed, for the most part, in old vats overlooking the Ionian Sea. Replaced, the concrete doors are now used as steps while all the piping has been reused to compose barriers and railings. Modernist proportions, terrazzo floors, glass partitions, metal pergolas and weathered concrete walls compose a timeless architectural vision. Better, a film set.
From €127 per night. dexamenes.com
FORESTIS (x2) – Mats Engfors (x2) – Guy Holloway, Architects Studio (x2) – Jeremy Mason McGraw – Richard Haughton – Nelson Garrido (x2) – Dexamenes Hotel Greece – Jerónimo Heitor Coelho
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