The Barai - Tribute to water

"Barai" comes from the word baray which is a large man made reservoir created by the ancient Khmers to channel irrigated water for use in their daily lives. In that era the baray was an important source of life that brought happiness, well-being and peace to the people.

The Barai Hyatt Regency Hua Hin
Design team: Mathar “Lek” Bunnag of Bunnag Architects
Location: 91 Hua Hin - Khao Takiap Road, Hua Hin, 77110, Thailand
Cost: US $12,000,000
When to visit: now

THE BARAI is a journey where the art of the architecture is your guide. Designed by the renowned Thai architect and interior designer, Lek Bunnag, THE BARAI is inspired by the heritage of Khmer architecture from the 11th century. The architecture and interior design of THE BARAI represents the glory of Khmer style of art, combined with the heritage of other art styles from this region. This will be reflected not only in the grandeur of the main facilities and in each of the treatment rooms, but also in all aspects of THE BARAI experience. The BARAI design elements include a wall designed to capture the sunset, a playful nod to Apsaras, a nymph-like creature in Hindu and Buddhist lore, and a swimming channel.

Surrounded by the pink exterior, The Barai Residences, an eight suite hotel and spa, ranging in size from 125 square metres to 150 square metres, are designed for treatments and overnight stays. The Barai Residences on the ground floor feature a verandah with a private plunge pool and garden, while those on the upper floor have spacious balconies and spectacular views of the Gulf of Thailand.

THE BARAI will also have 18 private treatment suites. Each suite features a private outdoor soaking pool, rain shower, Thai bed area for relaxation and Thai traditional treatments, private changing room and vanity. Three double suites offer deluxe hydrotherapy treatments with addition of Vichy treatment room and steam room.

The Barai journey begins in the car park, with a series of stepping stones leading to the welcome gallery artfully designed to slow guests down, but guests are formally welcomed in the Salarai water court, designed to recall a baray. The next stop is the Wall of Stars, a waiting area which uses cut-outs to capture light in constellation-like patterns--most resonating in the moments before sunset.Apsaras is realized in accents throughout the grounds. In washrooms, guests peer into her eyes, in the form of mirrors. Her presence is felt again in the treatment room, where fleeting glimpses of her hair, ears, and clothing hems are reinterpretedin mediums including sculpture. On the grounds, the design naturally progresses to the coast. Recognizing the natural beauty of existing trees, Bunnag designed the swimming channel to twist around them--instead of chopping them down--before leading to the sea.

McFarland House. An existing two-storey pavilion dating back to the 19th Century has been restored and transformed into an airy and elegant beachfront casual dining area offering a unique dining experience overlooking the Gulf of Thailand.

Court of Tranquillity. This secluded place of tranquillity with swimming channel and sand court is a perfect place for relaxation, yoga and meditation sessions.











via The Barai
Photo credits: Martin Nicholas Kunz

Richard Serra: Man of Steel

He emerged out of a radical art scene in the 1960s and went on to become one of America's most controversial artists - provoking some New Yorkers to threaten him with death. Now 70 and hailed as the world's 'greatest living sculptor', he remains a combative figure in the art world.

Richard Serra
Fileds: Minimalist sculptor
Works: Intersection II (1992) and Torqued Ellipse IV (1999)
Where to see: The Matter of Time-Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (Permanent exhibit)

Born in 1939, Richard Serra is one of the most significant artists of his generation. His groundbreaking sculpture explores the exchange between artwork, site, and viewer. He has produced unparalleled large-scale, site-specific sculptures for architectural, urban and landscape settings.

Richard Serra’s work since the 1960s has focused on the industrial materials that he had worked with as a youth in West Coast steel mills and shipyards: steel and lead. Serra’s work is known for it’s immense physicality, compounded by the breathtaking bends and curves of steel plates that carve private moment out of public spaces. Many of these pieces are self-supporting and emphasize the weight and nature of the materials. Rolls of lead are designed to sag over time. His exterior steel sculptures go through an initial oxidation process, but after 8-10 years, the patina of the steel settles to one color that will remain relatively stable over the piece's life.




Serra’s sculptures don’t require any prior knowledge of the artist’s work, or of any artist’s work; the experience itself, a sort of industrial sublime, is accessible and even generous. Standing under a sheet of steel that bulges above your head like a tidal wave, you feel the smallness and the frailty of your own body in a way that thrusts you back to childhood experiences of cliff edges, rollercoasters, and thunderstorms. It’s a primal experience that lights up the dark parts of your memory.



The Matter of Time, Sierra's best-known work, also the largest sculpture commission in history, is the only permanent exhibit at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The whole work consists of eight sculptures measuring between 12 and 14 feet in height and weighing from 44 to 276 tons.





The Matter of Time allows the viewer to perceive the evolution of the artist’s sculptural forms, from the relative simplicity of a double ellipse to the complexity of a spiral. The last two pieces of this sculpture are created from sections of toruses and spheres that produce different effects on the movement and perception of the viewer. These are unexpectedly transformed as the visitor walks through and around them, creating an unforgettable, dizzying feeling of space in motion. The entire room is part of the sculptural field. As he has done in other sculptures composed of many pieces, the artist has arranged the works deliberately in order to move the viewer through them and through the space surrounding them. The layout of the works along the gallery creates corridors with different, always unexpected proportions (wide, narrow, long, compressed, high, low). The installation also includes a progression in time. On the one hand, there is the chronological time that it takes to walk through and observe it from beginning to end. On the other, there is the time during which the viewer experiences the fragments of visual and physical memory, which are combined and re-experienced.

What Serra 's sculptures give you is about physical experience; and not just about looking.





via art:21 | www.guggenheim-bilbao.es

Haven on Sandy Island

The villas is named after 18 of the greatest Italian masters of art & architecture in history - such as Villa Michelangelo and Villa Leonardo.

Sandy Island

Design team: Claudio Silvestrin Architects, Jamie Durie (PATIO Landscape Architecture & Design)
Location: Sentosa Cove, Singapore
When to visit: 2011

Sandy Island is a rare collection of 18 waterfront villas nestled within a tropical island oasis of privacy and calm. Designed with the most discerning individuals in mind, every villa is a visual meditation on the concerp of ‘home’; a temple for the senses set in a tropical idyll. Each home is one of a kind, an original work of art by an acknowledged master of contemporary architecture.

Each of the 18 villas on Sandy Island will be designed by world-renowned Italian architect, Claudio Silvestrin, the man be­hind the design of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Turin, 26 Giorgio Ar­mani flagship stores around the world, and the interior of rap artist Kanye West's New York loft.

Gardens for the villas as well as the island's lush setting are the works of Jamie Durie, one of Australia's best landscape designers.




Unified by Claudio Sirvestrin's signature creative vision, Sandy Island is an incarnation of a particular philosophy which he holds close to his heart - a home should be a meditative space in which owners can restore their sense of balance and calm, free from the hectic pace and arbitrary intrusiveness of modem life.

The exterior design is typified by tall monolithic facades entirely clad in stone punctuated by Claudio's distinctive open topped narrow apertures, and solid timber screens. Each villa possesses four floors of luxurious living spaces including a lower floor featuring a dedicated car lift.

Unlike traditional homes, the Sandy Island villas, will have a lean main door that opens out to the canal. And residents will be able to drive straight into the basement carpark - a rare feature for bungalows.

In Claudio's design there is a deliberate continuity between the external design and that of its interior - each is seamlessly integrated with the other in one cohesive whole.





Beautifully proportioned spaces interconnect with minimal intrusion of doors or barriers, creating a seamless flow from room to room, from floor to floor, from the entrance to the waterfront.




Each Sandy Island villa features five bedrooms and a master suite bathroom featuring the signature Boffi I Fiumi long bath and double washbasins designed by Claudio Silvestrin, as well as a swimming pool, private berth for a 12-metre boat, basement garages big enough for two luxury cars, a passenger lift connecting all floors and an impressive double volume living area with floor to ceiling glass panels facing the waterfront.



Jamie Durie's landscape concept is that of ecogenesls, where tropical undergrowth soothes the lines of the landmark, complementing the vertical and linear with organic textures and forms. Layers of trees and flowering plants frame the architectural elements with the rich colour patette of the rainforest, acting as green veils between villas for greater exclusivity.

Developed by Malaysia YTL Corp, the Sandy Island villas measure 7500 to 9200 sq ft in built-up area, and 7000 to 10000 sq ft in land area. Prices start at $13.9 million and go up to $26 million. This works out at $2,000 to $2,600 per square foot.

via www.sandyisland.com.sg

Hotel Sezz- It's all about Space & service

Once you through the door, there was no front desk, simply a low-key lobby and this marvellous person or your 'personal butler' who will take cares of all your needs throughout the stay.

Hotel Sezz Paris
Design team: Christophe Pillet
Location: 6, Avenue Frémiet,Paris, France
When to visit: It's a hotel, when you happen in Paris

Own by veteran hotelier, Shahé Kalaidjian, Hotel Sezz Paris is located on a small quiet street in an upscale neighbourhood, with no shop or restaurant insight. Tucked behind a classic Art Nouveau façade, the hotel itself offering no hint of the fantasy inside.

Designed by Christophe Pillet, a protégé of Philippe Starck,the hotel interior features a comeback for chrome and leather. The 27 guestrooms hotel break the rules of a conventional hotel. With no reception desk, most beds in the hotel stand freely in the middle of the room, and not backed-up against the wall.

The Sezz black and red interior, with extensively used of khaki-grey stone,is strictly Parisian. The lighting fixtures in the lobby, were specially created for the Sezz in the legendary glass workshops of Murano. Vanity tops in the bathrooms are crafted by Boffi, and the taps are signed Dorn Bracht. Furnishings are based on simple lines and exquisite accents. And the ultra-modern furniture is severe and masculine.




The defining element in the 27 guestrooms is space – the smallest room is 200 square feet, the largest 400 square feet – a rare luxury in a city. The beds are done in chrome and red leather, a top of a thick crimson rug. Bathrooms are impeccably designed, with oversize tubs easily large enough for two. Only a transparent glass wall separating the bathtubs from the bed.

With the emphasis of comfort above all, easy elegance and service that adapts itself to the needs of the guest, rather than the other way around. The hotel all direct-dial room telephones are mobile—a thoughtful detail, so you can take calls from anywhere inside the hotel. WiFi internet access and movies on the sleek,flat-screened TVs are free of charge.





Public spaces include the first Veuve Clicquot champagne bar in Paris and a jacuzzi, hammam and massage room in the basement.

Price starts from 280euro to 710euro depending on the seasons & type of room.






via www.hotelsezz.com