Architecture tips

Often called Thailand’s “Capital in the North,” the mountainside city of Chiang Mai is an idyllic destination with bundles on offer across its rich and varied neighborhoods.

Hotel brands may seem a dime a dozen, but there is a reason why there are so many. The idea is two-fold: hospitality companies want to appeal to a variety of consumers while also drawing in different types of hotel and hospitality investors interested in opening a hotel under their brand name.

In the 16th century, Antwerp, Belgium, with its busy docks along the river Scheldt, was a booming center of trade and one of Europe’s most influential cities, attracting artists, intellectuals and entrepreneurs. In 1576, Christophe Plantin ran a prestigious printing business (one of the continent’s largest) in the center of the city, a half-mile from where, a few decades later, the painter Peter Paul Rubens would build his own studio and semicircular sculpture hall, modeled after the Pantheon. Over the years, while other long-established port cities like Venice and Barcelona evolved into throbbing tourist centers, Belgium’s second city largely kept far away from the spotlight, yet it’s always quietly maintained a reputation as a place for innovation and creative expression. In the 1980s, it became an important fashion hub with the emergence of the Antwerp Six: a group of young designers, including Ann Demeulemeester, who had been educated at the city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

The world’s most prestigious contemporary art exhibition, the Venice Art Biennale opened last week and runs until 24 November in two main locations, the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as throughout Venice, in museums, foundations, galleries, churches and palazzos. These “collateral events” are free and are mostly open through the fall. From stunning painting shows to sculptural installations, here are ten must-see exhibitions dotted throughout the city nicknamed "La Serenissima."

Fine luggage is an architectural timepiece that makes the first, and often only, impression when you are racing through airports or pulling through hotels. This Mother’s Day, give Mom a fresh and daring piece of luggage that will ignite her enough to book the dream vacation she’s been talking about. Here is the best luxury luggage for Moms who travel.

According to the city’s statistics bureau, more than 18 million people visited Amsterdam last year, making it one of the world’s most popular vacation destinations.

The 28th annual edition of the international art fair Miart last week kicked off a month of art, architecture, design and fashion in Italy’s most fashionable city. With 180 galleries from 28 countries showing more than 1,000 artworks, Milan’s international fair has a well-deserved reputation for carefully selected galleries. The fair has made a stellar effort to stand out among the hundreds of annual art fairs that include mammoth fairs like Frieze and Art Basel by focusing on Italian galleries and by taking the unusual decision to have the emerging galleries, rather than the established blue chip galleries, right at the front of the fair.

Deciding where to visit in India is not easy.

When the sun begins its descent, painting a mesmerizing golden hue over the Sea of Cortez, a sense of enchantment will envelop guests as they approach the Viceroy Los Cabos. This luxurious haven transcends the definition of a mere resort; it stands as a tribute to the opulence of Mexico. With a history of exploring exclusive destinations, Viceroy Los Cabos stands out as a unique gem in my travels as a triple threat: Culinary, Spirits, and Luxe Experiences.

Several hundred years ago, German-speaking traders would arrive in Bergen with boatloads of grain, cloth, and other vital commodities. They would stay for a few days in the wooden warehouses that line the harbor, before stocking their boats with dried fish from Lofoten and heading back to Europe.

An audacious new arrival has descended on Byron Bay's laid-back, surf-tousled shores—a brazen example of brutalist design making waves as the first five-star hotel in this famously bohemian beach enclave. Hotel Marvell, the vision of entrepreneurial design provocateurs Scott Didier and Scott Emery, is no mere upscale accommodations for Byron's sandal-clad masses and arriving jet set alike. It's an immersive architectural critique defiantly disrupting Australia's luxury hospitality norms. With its soaring raw concrete façades ingeniously softened by tropical plantlife, this daring design statement reimagines sophistication through Byron's inimitable counterculture lens—a surprising and unprecedented juxtaposition defying expectation at every turn.

From Moorish monuments and Roman ruins to Gothic gargoyles and modern marvels, these cities have glorious design masterpieces. 

Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, an IHG Hotels & Resorts' brand, has planted its first flag in the Dominican Republic.

No place in the world enchants the collective imagination quite like Paris. In the City of Light, you’re encouraged to savor every moment, from beginning the day with a warm, crusty baguette to toasting the evening with glasses of wine on a terrace under the twilight sky. Some of the best places to indulge in these simple pleasures (and those more elaborate) are Paris’ storied hotels, which have a reputation for impeccable service, opulent accommodations and exquisite fine dining.

In the heart of Northumberland, England, lies a castle and country house that draws history buffs, architectural enthusiasts, and movie fans alike.

Amidst verdant green valleys and rugged mountains lies a remarkable piece of cultural heritage at the heart of Norway. Dating back to the late 12th century, Borgund Stave Church is an architectural masterpiece that has stood the test of time.

When one thinks of the quintessential English experience, images of Shakespearean drama in the heart of London or the elegance of the Cotswolds might first spring to mind. Yet, the true essence of England's rich history and cultural depth can also be found in the less trodden paths of the North.

The enormously popular Palm Springs Modernism Week with its open house tours may have just passed, but no worries if you couldn’t make it. So rich is the city’s and the surrounding Coachella Valley’s architectural heritage that there’s no end to discovering more on the masters who, beginning nearly a century ago, made all of today’s cherished Desert Modernism happen.

If Indiana Jones took a turn toward the elegant and developed an obsession with textiles, he might be a bit like Louis Barthélemy, the French illustrator and designer who travels to Africa and the Middle East to work with weavers and craftspeople who are skilled in traditional techniques. Ishkar, a London-based company that collaborates with NGOs and artisans to create job opportunities for those living in isolated areas of countries often affected by war, recently commissioned him to create a capsule collection with women weavers in Afghanistan. Barthélemy typically works with artisans in person to create tapestries or rugs but, since the Taliban retook power in 2021, he’s had to connect with the weavers remotely. At the start of their collaboration, Barthélemy asked the weavers to draw a place that symbolized beauty to them. Many of the women chose the 14th-century Bagh-e Babur (Babur’s Garden) in Kabul. Images from those drawings, and one by Barthélemy himself, were then combined to create the patterns for three different rugs. Each one took about six months for the women to hand knot from Ghazni Wool. They are, Barthélemy says, “a collective dream of an ancient paradise.”

All built within the last 150 years, these stunning buildings around the world are monuments that will stand the test of time.

Years ago, when I first strolled into Miami Beach’s swanky Fontainebleau, I felt a heightened pizzazz, aswirl in the kind of stimulating panache and prestige that trumpets: Pay attention! For travel lovers of glam getaways—especially those renowned as celeb and A-lister favorites—Fontainebleau Miami Beach is a legendary draw. Today, it continues to be a hotspot of cool goings-on, much expanded and revitalized again and again since its 1954 launch. A $1-billion makeover in 2008 wowed. “Every era of American history has its architectural touchstones, buildings that transcend their time and come to define a cultural moment,” says author Stephen Wallis in Fontainebleau, the newly published, silk-wrapped, oversized hardcover coffee table book (3.4-pounds) by luxury publisher Assouline, which celebrates the curvilinear-shaped resort’s illustrious past, present and forward leap. “The Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach is that kind of landmark,” he adds. “An instant sensation when it opened, it remains an enduring icon, repeatedly updated and evolving to this day.” With principal photography by Peter Arnell, who is Fontainebleau Development’s chief brand and design officer, this striking book highlights treasures and pleasures of the famous Florida oceanside symbol. Dive into its thick paper stock pages that are ripe with riveting photos and illustrations. Wallis engagingly writes about Fontainebleau’s history and mystery, deals and diversions, challenges and change-makers, imagination and innovation.