Go to Goa… Introducing Alila Diwa Goa

Ahhh Goa…  the Ibiza of the Indian Ocean.  Beach parties, sarongs, and sun and now one of our newest properties, the Alila Diwa Goa.

Located 500 m from the beach, the resort is looking out to beautiful, verdant paddy fields leading to the Arabian Sea, and bringing a new level of luxury to the beautiful and exotic beach destination. The laid-back beach atmosphere is perfectly enhanced by the resort’s excellent service. Alila Diwa Goa has blended the best of contemporary Goan architecture with the finest of its incredibly rich cultural traditions within the exquisite and vibrant surrounding landscape to fashion an extraordinary experience in luxury destination travel.

Extending outward from the heart of the hotel is the stunning infinity pool, which invites guests to peer over at the astounding landscape, preferably while sipping on the perfect martini. Alila Diwa Goa offers guests a few options for wining and dining: The Spice Studio coastal specialty restaurant, VIVO with Live Kitchen, and The Edge Bar and Lounge. Each guestroom and suite is designed for the optimum in relaxed indulgence, epitomised by the view of nature.

Visit the hotel here!

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Nowness by LVMH

Nowness.com, a digital magazine created by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, wants to teach you how to live a life of luxury. Relax. The site, at least, is free.

In a time when luxury sales are not exactly on the up and up, Nowness stands as a way for brands to connect with consumers–past, present, and future (they hope). The site, which has been running in teaser mode and will go into full launch today, serves as LVMH’s answer to last year’s closure of online store eLuxury.com, which was shut down largely because many luxury brands started offering e-commerce through their own sites. Rather than create another online shopping destination, LVMH has positioned Nowness as an “information reference”–a place for users to experience “moments of inspiration” and “experience the luxury lifestyle online.”

Nowness will feature original and exclusive content. Each day will feature a new theme (the launch-day theme appears to be “hair”) complete with a handful of stories–videos, photos, or pieces of art revolving around fashion, art, or travel. Today, for example, features a video of model Lily Donaldson, with hair by stylist Sam McKnight, titled “Lily Donaldson’s Flying Hair.” A preview of the site featured a short film noir featuring model Agyness Deyn (below). A slideshow of fashion photography featuring highly stylized hair accompanies.

(from Fast Company)

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Louis Vuitton Concept Designs

Check out these architecturally-inspired concept designs from Louis Vuitton…

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Vitra Museum by Herzog and deMeuron

“The Vitra campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, is already a mecca for contemporary architecture, featuring a design museum by Frank Gehry, a conference center by Tadao Ando, and another building on the way by SANAA. And they’ve just finished what might be the greatest of them of them all: a new building, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, to showcase the company’s home-furniture collection.

Herzog & de Meuron–who made a global splash in 2008 with their “Bird’s Nest” stadium for the Beijing Olympics–conceived of the building as an “ur-house.” The individual volumes take the form of generic, A-frame houses, which are then stacked on top of each–creating an architectural symbol of Vitra’s actual business, selling high-design through mass production.” (via Fast Company)

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How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster?

Released at this year´s Berlinale, “How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster?” is Norberto López-Amado and Carlos Carcas´s new documentary about the legendary British architect, Norman Foster.

“Directed by Norberto López-Amado and Carlos Carcas, How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? is the first feature-length film produced by the art consultants at Art Commissioners. Watch the clips on the filmmakers’ Web site (scroll down). It’s soundtracked like a tear-jerker with swelling orchestras and ambiguous choral vocals. When architects appear (it’s mostly their buildings), there’s a lot of somber nodding and meaningful hand gestures. In one clip, over a crescendo of thrumming strings and a slow pan around and up the Gherkin, we hear London Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic wax poetic about Foster’s humble upbringings and the transformative power of good buildings:

“Architecture can make your life feel better. On a small scale, it transformed his adolescent bedroom in the suburbs of Manchester. Later, it could take him away from that narrow world, could make almost anything possible.”"

Check out our hotels in Berlin



(via Fast Company)

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Wallpaper* Suitcase

Wallpaper* and Globe-Trotter have teamed up to make a pretty slick suitcase worthy of design and fashion freaks everywhere…  “Heavily armed with superb detailing and exquisite quality, both a suitcase and hold-all are created in a classic blue colorway, outfitted with a special liner by award-winning illustrator Russell Bell. Both pieces look to release at select stockists worldwide, including the Globe-Trotter flagship store in London, Harrods, Selfridges, Browns, The Conran Shop, and several other accounts throughout the globe.”

See the Wallpaper* Hotel of the Year (Habita Monterrey)

See the Wallpaper* Ski Resort of the Year (Rocks Resort)

(via Hypebeast)

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Resolve to… EAT AN AUTHENTIC WIENERSCHNITZEL

The final day of our Resolve to Travel campaign has come…  Today, we encourage and inspire you to treat yourself in 2010 to a true authentic Vienna wienerschnitzel while enjoying two complimentary nights at the Triest hotel.

The cross-vaulted rooms are clues to the building’s former life: a coach station used by travellers from Vienna to Trieste. Combining elements of imperial elegance with sober modern lines, the interiors by Sir Terence Conran convey a picture of unity, warmth and are decidedly inviting. Designer highlights in the guestrooms include Casteglioni’s high-arching standing lamp and a Knoll table and chair set by Warren Platner. Black-and- white photographs, porthole windows, railings and flag motifs throughout the hotel underline the nostalgic link to the port of Trieste.

WIN HERE!

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Art of the Billboard…

The Moment showcased a few fantastic art billboards that have popped up in Los Angeles recently.  In the column entitled “Seeing Things”, LA writer and curator, Brooke Hodge, writes bi-weekly about the best and brightest in new design…

Billboards, like palm trees and freeways, are ubiquitous elements of Los Angeles’s vast cityscape. Over the next seven weeks, “How Many Billboards? Art In Stead,” an ambitious urban exhibition organized by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, will be displayed on 21 billboards across the city. When the Museum of Contemporary Art unveiled its controversial 2001 marketing campaign, in the form of billboards plastered with clever plays on museum labels, Kimberli Meyer, the MAK Center’s director, imagined billboards as a site for art rather than for advertising.

Gerard Smulevich/Courtesy MAK Center for Art and Architecture Kori Newkirk’s billboard for the MAK Center exhibition is on Wilshire Boulevard opposite MacArthur Park and is a self-portrait of the artist with a large snowball stuffed in his mouth.

(Gerard Smulevich/Courtesy MAK Center for Art and Architecture)

Artists could use the billboards like large blank canvases to create work in the context of the city — work that would be seen by an almost unlimited audience. Three years ago, Meyer revived the project and­ — with the curators Lisa Henry, Nizan Shaked and Gloria Sutton, each of whom has her own approach to contemporary art — commissioned 21 contemporary artists, including Kerry Tribe, Kenneth Anger, Michael Asher, Kori Newkirk, Jennifer Bornstein, Yvonne Rainer and James Welling, to submit proposals. The first billboards went up last week, and more will pop up across the city. “The streets of Los Angeles become the walls of the exhibition, and the city itself becomes a large museum,” says Meyer, who hopes it will become an annual event. A series of public programs, bus tours and an overview exhibition and orientation station at the MAK Center, which opens on Feb. 23, will complement the billboards. Go to the project’s web site for an interactive Google map with up-to-date information on billboard locations, and don’t forget to look up!

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Resolve to… Get some culture into your life!

Ahhh Florence…  Sculpture, paintings, religion, philosophy, food and wine…  It can all be found here.  If you 2009 was a little too much “OK!” magazine, and not enough Dante, enter our Resolve to Travel campaign and win two nights at the fabulous Continentale or Gallery Art Hotel!

Check it out here…

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Resolve to… Buy a Moroccan rug in Morocco

Splendidly located in a lush palm grove just north of the Red City, MURANO Resort Marrakech combines the best of European sophistication and Moroccan lavishness. The resort simultaneously offers breathtaking views of the surrounding Atlas Mountains and Sahara desert, a unique opportunity for travellers to relax in a palm’s shade, but, situated only 15 minutes from the Medina, visitors can also escape and lose themselves in the urban hubbub.

Spend 2010 in style as you travel to Morocco and spend two complimentary nights at the Murano Resort Marrakesh!

Enter here to win

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