Fantastic Escapes

FANTASTIC ESCAPES

Architecture and Design for Stylish Stays

Boutique hotels and B&Bs have become exceptionally popular among tourists and travellers in recent decades. B&Bs originated in the United Kingdom, but have spread across Europe and beyond; in recent years, they have also become prevalent in China.

Fantastic Escapes: Architecture and Design for Stylish Stays features somewhere in the region of 200 boutique hotels and B&B projects from around the world. Each example is illustrated with multi-angle pictures of guest rooms, restaurants, leisure areas, and other spaces.

Accompanied by detailed description to demonstrate how these institutions have evolved, this book is a valuable reference for hotel designers and B&B operators.

Edited by Maria Chatzistavrou

Front cover: Manshausen Island Resort

Photography: Steve King

Edited by Maria Chatzistavrou

FANTASTIC ESCAPES Architecture and Design for Stylish Stays

$60 [USA] £45 [GB]

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Submerging into landscapes and cultures

By Maria Chatzistavrou

Traditionally, bed and breakfasts and guesthouses in England are owned by families who live on the premises. Although they are not usually available during the evening, on average most family members work 10 to 12 hours a day from 6 o’clock in the morning; they sometimes employ part-time staff. While many hotels ensure a staff presence 24 hours a day and seven days a week, guesthouses generally have a more limited staff presence. In Japan, guesthouse tenants have to pay a substantial damage deposit and a cleaning fee when they leave. In India, tremendous growth can be seen in the guesthouse business.

Maria Chatzistavrou of Lime Deco Interior designer Maria Chatzistavrou founded the architectural and interior design company Lime Deco, based in Kolonaki, Athens, Greece, in 2007.

Her projects have achieved high press recognition from publications around the world.

Following her dreams, Chatzistavrou invests in her love and passion for interior design. Her values are collaboration, dialogue, inspiration, and creation.

Chatzistavrou’s philosophy is to improve the quality of life of her clients by creating exceptional interior spaces that combine a remarkable and functional result.

Recently celebrating 10 years of work through wonderful collaborations, highly recognized projects, and distinguished friendships, Lime Deco’s field of expertise is interior and small-scale exterior architecture, and the design of furniture and industrial and decorative objects. Its projects specialize in the interior design of hotels, private residences, and professional and commercial spaces.

Chatzistavrou creates exceptional spaces that correspond to modern design solutions and challenges. Her designs take into consideration the protection of the natural environment and the enrichment of life. Chatzistavrou’s ideas stem from her collection of data that reflect the altered tendencies of the current market.

Nowadays the guesthouse-accommodation sector has been largely improved from previous times. Even home-converted guesthouses often provide three-star-equivalent facilities to guests. While people living in a paying-guest accommodation are from all around the world and different cultures, for those who live within them, the goal is generally the same: to carefully select designs and décor to make their own lives—as well as the stay of the guests— easy and comfortable.

Modern times and access to information on the internet have increased the desire to travel, to see different places, and to live experiences that detach us from our everyday life. The various stimuli and the variety of choices of the modern traveler have also created the need to live a more complete experience in a place, such as that offered by a home or private retreat, rather than the generic accommodation of a hotel. To live in a house in the forest or by the sea has created a new need for guesthouse accommodation for the international traveler, and such a setting breeds more personalized hospitality from the owner–operators who reside there.

The concept of guesthouse accommodation was generally created by the need to lodge friends or relatives and, as such, it traditionally constitutes the extension of a main residence. In many cases, the main residence even turns into a guesthouse to be shared with or lent to friends for accommodation.

While not always located in a popular destination, guesthouses should always aim to be part of the local culture and/or in accord with the landscape. Guesthouses that I have curated in Greece as an interior designer have always possessed clear influences from their landscape and geographical location. They were designed to host and were decorated with respect to their surroundings to allow guests to be submerged in the experience when visiting them.

The guesthouse My Fairytale Villas in Vonitsa in the Amvrakikos Gulf is situated in an estate full of pine, olive, and citrus trees and has three private beaches. Through the use of stone, wood, and bright colors, the décor strongly reminds visitors of the elements and colors of nature. Waking up in the morning, guests find themselves in a perfectly quiet environment— away from the lights and noise of the city—to start their day by enjoying breakfast in nature with products produced within the estate.

The Syra Suites guesthouses are in perfect harmony with the Cycladic landscape on the island of Syros, which overlooks the enchanting Aegean Sea. The spaces are distinguished by luminosity; they are oriented towards the view of the sea and preserve privacy at the same time. The natural and modern interior design refers to the Boho style and reflects a modern and global decorative approach of feeling lighter and more intimate.

Finally, in the Namaste Suites in Oia, Santorini on the caldera side, the rooms are basically a cave with branches that are used to separate the spaces. The decoration, fully respecting this particular architecture, complements and gives the visitor the feeling of a delightful luxury accommodation with positive energy influence, as appropriate to the island of Santorini.

These three guesthouses, located in different places in Greece with such a great landscape variation—from the forest in Vonitsa, endless blue in Chios, Boho disposition in Syros, and the unique setting of a cave in the caldera of Santorini—guests are hosted with a variety of stimuli and experiences and are able to take some of the energy of each space away with their experience.

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Pirates, princesses, and spacemen

By Chuck Peterson Architect

During our childhood, we were all inclined to invite our friends to stay the night, to dine with our family, play games, and be a part of our personal lives. To separate ourselves from the whole family, we would venture off to our bedrooms or another part of the home. We would build forts out of blankets inside the house, or pitch a tent in the backyard. For more elaborate accommodations, we could build permanent structures, like playhouses and forts. If there was an inviting tree, a treehouse structure could be created.

Chuck Peterson of Chuck Peterson Architects Chuck Peterson has designed an array of award-winning projects of both traditional and contemporary styles. His firm, Chuck Peterson Architects, resides in the wine country region of Northern California, where they specialize in scenic homes, wineries, and event caves. Peterson’s projects have been published in several books and magazines over the past 25 years.

Peterson studied architecture and environmental design at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His early influence was working at a firm that specialized in restoration and preservation of historical buildings. He is the past president of the American Institute of Architects, Northern California Chapter.

For Peterson, there is not one resounding style that embodies his work. He uses his clients’ desires and historic design elements as a platform to create a unique and personalized style for each project. The firm’s use of natural building materials, comfortable open floor plans, and an intuitive appreciation of the outdoor environment transform spaces into works of art.

These unique spaces allowed us to be undisturbed by our siblings, or parents. Within these structures, our imagination could flourish. We would pretend these spaces were transformed into a great palace in a faraway land; or a spaceship jetting off to a distant planet; or a pirate ship sailing the seven seas, hunting for buried treasures.

Today’s guesthouse is reminiscent of those creative and whimsical structures we built during our youth. They are a place for our cherished family and friends to share the same benefits we have come to enjoy. Here, special guests are comforted with space to relax into their own routine, and allow a short respite from the main group. The guesthouse provides that separation without imposing on the activities at the main house.

As our families grew larger over the years, maybe our homes did not. The children married and holiday gatherings grow larger. Or distant relatives want to reconnect with a visit.

Having a guesthouse allows these families to be closer during the holidays and family events.

Providing a convenient place to let your hair down is welcomed, rather than hunting for that elusive inn or hotel room during the busy seasons.

The locations of these guesthouses are as varied as the architectural styles themselves. From a small historic cottage in the backyard to a contemporary building nestled in the forest, the location of these guesthouses can create a unique journey through the property. There are guesthouses located above garages that create a commanding view, while others are tucked away in a secret garden. There are even guesthouses built in trees.

In many ways, the guesthouse reflects the feeling of the main house in a condensed manor.

Like a window into the style of the main home, these jewel boxes do not waste space. Some are simple studio spaces with a hide-a-bed couch and a kitchenette, while others have a living room, kitchen, and multiple bedrooms.

What makes the guesthouse so special is how it was created to embrace our guests with all the warmth and comforts of our home, while respecting the need for privacy. These spaces reveal how special it is to have guests, and to share in what makes their home a unique and magical place.

Like when they were children, these spaces may transform our guest into kings and queens, spacemen, or sea-worthy pirates. So, as you browse through these pages, let your imagination flourish, viewing all the unique and beautiful buildings that were created for their guests. How special those guests must feel.

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Accommodating the shameless hedonist

By Luciana Breviglieri

There has been an increasing demand for Italy’s cultural and artistic heritage: 36 percent of visitors come for cultural tourism; moreover, 60 percent of these tourists are foreign visitors.

This is closely related to the development of bed and breakfasts(B&Bs) and guesthouses in Italy. Although a new phenomenon, it has had great success over the years compared to traditional hotels.

Luciana Breviglieri Luciana Breviglieri graduated in Architecture at Florence University in 1978. Together with colleagues she started an architectural firm specialized in restoration and interior design in Verona and worked there until 1992. She then carried on working occasionally as an architect as she started running the family company (founded by her father) until 2016.

Breviglieri has travelled a lot and has never stopped being interested in art and architecture.

When travelling, she always tries not to stay in traditional hotels, instead choosing small family accommodations so as to get in direct contact with the place, gaining valuable know-how in the art of being a host. She has been interested in the concept of sustainable architecture and environmental awareness for many years.

The reason for this increase stems from various concrete factors, without ignoring the imperceptible ones: B&Bs and guesthouses offer travelers a less-binding hospitality, more freedom in managing their time, a relaxing and homelike atmosphere, often homemade breakfasts rich of local and seasonal products, and last but not least, distance from the crowds of tourists on package holidays. In brief, the traveler enters into a homelike and not standardized dimension that would not be easily found in traditional hotels.

The Etruscans first, then the Romans with their extraordinary works of art, and later the great Renaissance families (like the Medicis in Florence and the Scaligeris in Verona) hosted the best architects, sculptors, painters, scholars, and writers of their time at their courts, enhancing the country of villas, palaces, and cathedrals so that a visitor could have the unusual experience of sleeping in a Palladian Villa decorated with Veronese’s frescoes.

Traveling to Italy has a long tradition. In the mid-18th-century, young and rich European aristocrats, artists, and lovers of literature used to stay in Italy for long periods of time and were strongly inf luenced and inspired by its great beauty and its abundant artistic, architectural, and landscape heritage.

I am, of course, talking about ‘The Grand Tour’—the traditional trip of Europe, which was undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of sufficient rank—which greatly influenced the art world (many pieces of which can be found in the most important museums in the world). One of the most meaningful examples in literature is certainly J.W. Goethe’s Italian Journey. And from this, the concept of ‘tourism as a new mass culture’ was born.

Nowadays, staying in home-like accommodation is a simple and direct way to more intimately know Italy and its various regions and, therefore, the real lives and ways of thinking of its inhabitants. Certainly, the household members are the most convincing promoters of the area where they live and to which they are sentimentally bound; as such, they know much more than most tour operators.

It is definitely a more tailor-made way to travel, to feel more like ‘natives’ instead of ordinary tourists and comprehend the complexities and the many contradictions of a country of rich cultures and traditions such as Italy. It is a simple and immediate way of avoiding clichés and at the same time awakening the five senses, not least taste, which will be gratified by the large culinary choice we are very proud of, which are complementary to our artistic and cultural heritage unique in the world.

Where I come from, Veneto, and more specifically where I live, Verona, it is important to mention its Roman origins, the perfect and fine representations of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque styles together with its livable size that makes Verona the third-most visited city in Italy.

About 62 miles (100 kilometers) from Verona, you can find Venice, which is so particular, so exciting, and so unique that it would be unfair and reducing just to call it merely a ‘city.’

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The Palladian Villas of Veneto and Castles in small villages with few inhabitants are not only found in Veneto but also in the whole of Italy. In a few square kilometers of peninsula and within a short distance you are spoilt for choice as you can admire and appreciate our artistic and culinary heritage. And, finally, we must not forget the Great Verona Wines made in the Valpolicella area, starting with the Amarone, the Soave produced in its hills and then the Lugana of Lake Garda.

The story of our B&B in Verona—Casa & Natura Breviglieri—(described later in this book) can be summed up simply: situated at the foot of the hills of Verona, it is a 19th-century residential property converted into a B&B. What makes this place of three bedrooms, a breakfast room, and a reception in sustainable architecture so special is the fact it is surrounded by nature (one of the bedrooms opens onto a secret garden set like a jewel in a tuff stone). At the bottom of the garden, a tuff natural grotto has been furnished with sofas and armchairs, thus converted into a beautiful and surprising lounge where you can relax, read, or simply admire the surrounding beauty. On page 183 of her guide Venice and Verona for the Shameless Hedonist , Ariela Bankier gives an enthusiastic description of our B&B. The renovation work using sustainable architecture materials and the choice of light and natural colors in the furniture demonstrates the total respect of the original structure and of its precious green spaces. The result is a fine, bright, and timeless interior design mainly in Italian style adorned with some authentic antique pieces.

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Case studies

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North and South America

Argentina

Casa AV Summer House Location Mar Azul, Buenos Aires, Argentina Composition 1 building, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms Design company BAK arquitectos Photography Gustavo Sosa Pinilla

This work is the result of a process that began in 2004 with the construction of a private summer house for guests who enjoyed their holidays in the forest of Mar Azul. The requirement from the client was to create a rentable house of about 1076 square feet (100 square meters), with an aesthetic-constructive proposal similar to the other houses built in the area by the studio. The basic needs of the summer house were two bedrooms—one with private bathroom—an integrated kitchen, and outdoor areas. An area of outstanding natural beauty that has gradually been domesticated by the proliferation of constructions, this project was about a formal search for a bucolic character and the picturesque.

The project was undertaken as an opportunity to propose shapes, materials, and alternative materials to work in harmony with the specific environment. The search was then oriented towards a purposeful architecture of a more relaxed housing, with materiality and formalization the result of a desire for belonging to that pre-existing reality.

Thus, the recognition of the particular microclimate of the maritime forest of Mar Azul and the atmospheres it recreates, as well as the need to concrete the construction at a distance, were determinants of the aestheticconstructive decisions that defined the work.

The need to capture the light that passes through the trees led the designers to conceive the house as semi-covered with big windows that provide long hours of natural light and a full integration with the scenery, while from the outside they reflect the privileged landscape, creating a house with less presence.

The decision to accelerate the constructive stages to allow monitoring of the work at 248.5 miles (400 kilometers) away made the designers choose the exposed concrete as the main material. The shadow of the forest allowed them to use this material since it provides sufficient thermal insulation. The thermal conditioning of the house in winter didn’t matter much because it’s supposed to be used in summer; however, they foresaw a heating system.

The water-resistant insulation was resolved by using a very compact concrete and studying the shape of the outer-skin in order to reach faster water drainage. On the other hand, the color and texture of the exposed concrete made by wood tables give a strong and mimetic presence, so the work sits in harmony with the landscape.

An outer skin made by only two materials— concrete and glass—resolves the integration with the landscape and the formal, structural, and functional issues.

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North and South America

Argentina

Golf House Golf House is located at the center of Costa Esmeralda, an 8-mile (13-kilometer) neighborhood north of the seaside resort of Pinamar. Situated on highest area of the neighborhood, both the front and the back of the plot of land adjoin a golf course that, along with the mainly wild native vegetation, compose its immediate surroundings.

The commission consisted of a vacation guesthouse that could be inhabited throughout all four seasons of the year and that required little maintenance. The brief called for three secondary bedrooms (two sharing an external bathroom and one with an en suite), and a master bedroom, completely independent of the others, served by another bathroom and in open relationship with a space that could be used both as a private living room and a painting atelier.

The studio proposed a house entirely materialized in exposed concrete, with a noble esthetic expression that allowed for a respectful dialogue with its surroundings.

The architectural strategy aimed at organizing the different functional requirements distinctly grouped in three pure volumes oriented independently of one another and set at different levels.

With its back half buried under the dune, the lower volume lodges the entrance lobby and the secondary bedrooms. Along with a cube standing opposite—serving as a warehouse—it supports the prism destined to house the dynamics of the family’s activities.

Containing the master bedroom, the third volume stands at maximum height, thus satisfying the client’s requirement of privacy.

Location Costa Esmeralda, Buenos Aires, Argentina Composition 1 building, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms Design company Luciano Kruk arquitectos Photography Daniela Mac Adden

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Published in Australia in 2018 by The Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd Shanghai Office ABN 89 059 734 431 6 Bastow Place, Mulgrave, Victoria 3170, Australia Tel: +61 3 9561 5544 Fax: +61 3 9561 4860 books@imagespublishing.com www.imagespublishing.com Copyright © The Images Publishing Group Pty Ltd 2018 The Images Publishing Group Reference Number: 1457 All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Title: Fantastic Escapes: Architecture and Design for Stylish Stays Author: Maria Chatzistavrou (Ed.) ISBN: 9781864707656 Production manager | Group art director: Nicole Boehringer Senior editor: Gina Tsarouhas Assisting editor: Bree De Roche Printed by Toppan Leefung Printing Limited, in Hong Kong/China IMAGES has included on its website a page for special notices in relation to this and its other publications. Please visit www.imagespublishing.com

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