For the world’s top Starchitects, museums get press and private homes pay the big bucks, but hotels are a unique way to let the public experience the work. From public spaces and pools to luxurious suites, these 10 hotels listed are architecture nerd heaven.
1. REMOTA
Puerto Natales, Chile — When you’ve journeyed to the end of the earth, a man-made monument would feel out of place. Remota, by Germán del Sol, is modern architecture at its most self-effacing.
2. HOTEL AMERICANO
New York, New York — The Americano’s simple white interiors recall those of its Chelsea art gallery neighbors, however the gleaming metal screen that covers its face is anything but minimal.
3. CONSERVATORIUM
Amsterdam, Netherlands — Amsterdam’s historic music conservatory retains its classic façade, but inside it’s been totally re-imagined, put to new use as the ultra-modern Conservatorium Hotel.
4. H2HOTEL
Sonoma Valley, California — Northern California’s Sonoma Valley finally comes of age: this modern classic in wine country leaves Tuscan villas and Provençal farmhouses as nothing but a distant memory.
5. CLASKA
Tokyo, Japan — It’s no longer the new kid on the block, but Claska, out in Tokyo’s creative-focused Meguro district, is still a pilgrimage site for design groupies and boutique-hotel junkies.
6. LA PURIFICADORA
Puebla, Mexico — This modernist makeover of a 19th-century water processing plant is one of Puebla’s new architectural wonders, with a rooftop pool that’s not to be missed.
7. KAMEHA GRAND
Bonn, Germany — Karl-Heinz Schommer’s striking wave-shaped structure and Marcel Wanders’s whimsical neo-baroque interiors combine to create a luxury hotel for the next century.
8. SAFFIRE FREYCINET
Tasmania, Australia — It takes an impressive building to compete with the scenery here, and the stingray-shaped main lodge at Saffire Freycinet rises to the challenge.
9. BENESSE HOUSE
Kagawa, Japan – This hotel is collaboration between the billionaire art collector Soichiro Fukutake and the Pritzker prize–winning architect Tadao Ando, with major works and site-specific installations by everyone from Jackson Pollock to James Turrell.
10. OPPOSITE HOUSE
Beijing, China — Though the concept is inspired by ancient Chinese hospitality, Beijing’s Opposite House, by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, is a thoroughly modern hotel. (via Tablet Hotels)
