A new private home draws on the drama and natural feel of the Karijini National Park, set within the vast, open landscapes of Western Australia. The project, fittingly titled Karijini House, was designed by Tenille Teakle, design director at Studio Gritt. Her goal? 'To create a home that offers the same sense of solitude and connection to nature [as the national park],' she explains.

Explore a house inspired by Karijini National Park

The property is located in the Perth suburb of Wembley Downs. Inspired by the materiality, tactility and wild feel of the Karijini nature, the 409 sq m house (spanning two above-ground levels and a basement) features 7m-high rammed-earth walls and large glass windows that connect it to the outdoors at every turn.

Explaining the connection between her inspiration and the home's context and reality, Teakle writes: 'Horizontal banding in the imperfect and damaged face brick (weathered by age) evokes the carved Karijini rockfaces. The undulating texture of the rammed concrete walls echoes the tactility of the rockface. Burnished concrete floors and soffits are reminiscent of blackened sand.

'Upstairs the lighter hemp render and palette replicate the experience of re-emerging onto the plains from a hike down the gorge, being bathed in natural daylight, no longer in the dark and dank and mysterious. Large, banded iron boulders feature as architectural monuments, sparking curiosity and storytelling.'

The designer and her team sought to craft a home that feels like a sanctuary, a solitary cocoon, cool and calm – making the everyday appear like a holiday, even in Karijini House's dense urban and suburban broader setting. '[It evokes] the experience of traversing a gorge,' she says.

The creative team took into account sustainability principles, as well as questions around provenance and longevity. As a result, the home features recycled rammed concrete walls, repurposed second-hand local materials, and a rich green garden of native planting that allow the local wildlife to thrive.

Teakle highlights: 'To distil the Karijini experience into identifying features, they would be scale, grandeur, light and shade, horizontal banding and privacy.'

@gritt_studio

What happens when brutalist and modernist references unite? Coy Yiontis Architects’ Glenblaith house is the answer – a quirky concrete residence in the prestigious Manifold Heights neighbourhood in Victoria, Australia.

Tour Glenblaith, a residence where brutalism and modernism collide

The single-storey residence was designed as a ‘forever home’ for a professional couple. Its façade is smooth, geometric and mysterious, with a timber entry that acts as a moveable screen to slowly unveil its introverted core.

‘The client approached us after following the work of the practice for over ten years,’ explains the firm’s director, George Yiontis. ‘Armed with magazine clippings of our previous projects, there was a clear focus on the courtyard house typology and use of robust, natural materials.

'Concrete and timber were the protagonists in the vision of their new home, integrated with a prominent and lush landscape to satisfy her green thumb and provide a focus in retirement years.'

The home's anchor is the 4.8m oculus, a subtle nod to midcentury design hinting to the fluid curvature of The TWA Flight Center and architect John Lautner’s 1979 Hope Residence. This architectural ode foreshadows the intricate design codes within the rest of the home.

Yiontis notes, ‘The building’s appearance from the street is unassuming but different; the low-lying concrete form is recessed from its fenceless boundary and the lush front yard contrasts the endless stretch of newly volume-built and post-war neighbours with their pitched roofs and fenced, manicured lawns. While conforming to planning guidelines, the house is an anomaly in the streetscape.’

In this context, Glenblaith was conceived to challenge the traditional conventions of suburbia and its landscape. The architecture firm made sure to utilise unorthodox materials and small nooks to keep an element of surprise.

The monolithic concrete columns frame the large atrium-cum-courtyard space, complete with a lily pond, offering a central green utopia with the residence. Beyond this, the house is divided into separate wings; one intimate, one for living and entertaining.

Other unexpected design details include a small alcove in the bedroom, which has been utilised as a desk space, while a window has been artfully barricaded with an intriguing brick pattern, allowing the shadows to dance on the floor below.

Coy Yiontis Architects has redefined suburbia, stepping away from the white-picket-fenced, cookie-cutter mould, and presenting a new benchmark for living: a vibrant garden house that doesn’t shout or demand attention, but is slowly discovered and enjoyed.

coyyiontis.com.au

Among the hundreds of dazzling treasures on show at NGV’s ‘Cartier’ exhibition, Pascale Lepeu would, in an emergency, save the Model A mystery clock first. It’s an horological marvel in which diamond-encrusted hands appear to float inside a crystal block with no visible mechanism. For Lepeu, Cartier Collection director, the 1914 timepiece is of ‘perfect proportions, representing all three dimensions of Cartier: the precious object maker, watchmaker and jeweller combined’.

The clock is restrained by the maison’s usual opulent standards, displayed in the most sober of the themed galleries housing the largest Cartier exhibition ever held in Australia. Designed by Rotterdam-based Sabine Marcelis, principal of her eponymous studio, and Paul Cournet of Cloud, the carpeted spaces lead visitors on a colour-coded arc through the evolution of the nearly 180-year-old maison.

Co-curated with the V&A’s Helen Molesworth, the exhibition builds on the original 2025 London show, with a much larger presentation of nearly 400 jewels and timepieces, deepened by a trove of archival material and an original soundtrack by Ai Yamamoto and Erkki Veltheim. Notably, the brutalist-era NGV allows the exhibits more room to breathe, compared to the 19th-century V&A.

A 27m-long glass mirror, progressing in an ombre from yellow to pink and deep red, greets visitors at the entrance. 'It reflects light and introduces you to the colour palette of what’s to come, embodying how my world and Cartier’s collide,' says Marcelis. It leads to the Manchester tiara, an early example of Cartier’s signature Garland style. Made in 1903 for the Dowager Duchess of Manchester, its 1,500-plus diamonds sparkle as it sits solo under the spotlight.

From there, the exhibition sweeps across decades and continents, charting its innovations through the stories of its patrons and heiresses to fortunes – Daisy Fellowes, Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke – as much as the objects themselves. New for Australian audiences is a collection of early-20th-century pieces commissioned by opera legend Dame Nellie Melba, featuring her beloved turquoise and diamonds alongside Cartier’s pioneering use of platinum.

In a bold yellow room, displays trace the Cartier brothers’ world of inspiration, spanning Egypt, India, China, Japan and Iran. Among many highlights is a necklace commissioned by the Maharaja of Patiala, its 2,930 diamonds anchored by a 234.65ct De Beers yellow diamond – lost after Indian independence and rediscovered in 1998, stripped of its finest stones, which Cartier replaced with replicas.

Next, an emerald cut-like volume distils the Cartier style that came to prominence at the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts (its centenary recently honoured). It was when the celebrated Tutti Frutti creations emerged, luscious clusters of carved rubies, sapphires and emeralds made possible by Indian coloured gemstones and artisans. 'It was neither Indian nor Parisian. It simply did not exist before and we made something entirely new,' says Lepeu.

The mood shifts in the Obsession with Stones room. Its glass central volume glows at the edges, making visitors 'feel like you’re inside a gemstone', says Marcelis. Among vintage and modern pieces, like a 2015 bracelet with a 189.345ct Australian black opal, space is dedicated to Jeanne Toussaint, creative director from 1933 to 1970, who elevated the panther motif into an icon. A highlight: a clip brooch owned by the Duchess of Windsor, its platinum and diamond cat resting on a 152.35ct cabochon sapphire. 'To create a jewel with an animal that represents power and independence, that was really new and shocking,' says Lepeu, of an era when women were finding greater freedoms.

A metallic-grey Watches and Clocks room acts as a palate cleanser before the shock of green in the Film and Celebrity room, where Elizabeth Taylor’s Burmese ruby and diamond necklace from third husband Mike Todd sits near outré pieces commissioned by Mexican film star Maria Felix, including articulated snake and crocodile necklaces in diamonds and emeralds that show off Cartier’s technical prowess.

The show culminates in a rotunda housing 24 tiaras, including a pair of turquoise and diamond headpieces worn by sisters Lady Nancy Astor and Lady Phyllis Brand, shown together for the first time in decades, and the 1902 Scroll tiara, worn most recently by Rihanna on the cover of W magazine.

Newer pieces sit beside older ones throughout, and a continuous narrative rooted in culture and innovation emerges. Lepeu calls it Cartier’s vocabulary: ‘a new jewel is a new sentence using our words’, a language that remains spellbinding more than a century on.

‘Cartier’ is on display 12 June to 4 October 2026, at NGV International, Melbourne

ngv.vic.gov.au

They say dogs look like their owners. But what about houses? When Madeleine Blanchfield Architects was approached to craft a residence for an artist and his family, the studio leaned into sculpture to mould a contemporary Australian house on the outskirts of Sydney. Raw and rooted in its hillside context, the building is cubic and angular, with echoes of brutalist architecture, but softened by locally sourced, earthy-toned Krause ‘Bronte’ bricks and oak, and is devoid of finishes.

Step inside a sculptural house in Australia

Sculptor Aaron Crothers worked with the architect to create the three-storey house that evokes an artwork itself – and is fittingly titled 'Sculpted' – nodding to the owner’s work in ceramic and timber. Collaborating closely with his architect, Crothers even added the personalised finishing touch, carving the house number into a raw brick before it was laid within the wall.

‘The main conceptual principle was to build a home with zero superfluous layers,’ says practice director Madeleine Blanchfield. ‘The project explores materiality in its rawest form while taking on board our core values of solar-passive design, rigorous planning and finessed detailing, while delivering the same joie de vivre we seek in all our work.’

The team was sensitive to the site's context too. The intention was to create a space that drew on its location (the ancestral home of the Cammeraygal People of the Eora Nation) while also acknowledging neighbouring buildings. Blanchfield explains: ‘The home is immersed in the native landscape and [gives the feeling of] living outdoors when opened up. Light floods in from all directions throughout the day.’

The residence is accessed from the ground level. The first floor hosts the kitchen, equipped with a pink ‘Patagonia’ honed quartzite island and bench, as well as the dining and living areas. A second lounge to the south showcases the building's high ceilings and houses a monolithic concrete fireplace at its core. A terrace stretches out from this part, shaded by the canopy of a tree, the sun trickling through the leaves occasionally to cast golden beams across the interiors.

The concrete floor acts as a structural foundation, anchoring the building to the ground, while the brick walls are exposed, bearing the house's 'bones'. ‘It is very unusual for the slab to be the finished floor, and there is no room for error,' says Blanchfield. ‘After the pour, the wind blew gum leaves onto the concrete in the girls’ bedrooms. Nature’s accidental marks became akin to a ceramicist’s intentional stamping process, and are embraced as part of the house’s story.’

The sculptural touches don’t end there. Each interior furnishing is a considered choice – from the Michel Boyer brutalist coffee table to a vintage ‘Le Bambole’ B+B Italia sofa. A Max Lamb lounge chair, an ‘Albireo’ sofa from De La Espada, and a daybed by Skupa finish the living room.

The garage has become home to Crothers’ sculpture studio, a place for him to hone his craft, such as his new ‘Interconnected’ series of stoneware ceramic sculptures. This entire residential design is a thoughtful example of how a house can reflect not only its context or a sole architect's formal experimentation, but also the person who resides there. Sculpted House perfectly echoes the creative, collaborative spirit that birthed it.

madeleineblanchfield.com

A new rural house engulfed by peaceful Australian nature sits nestled in the Red Hill area of the Mornington Peninsula, Australia. Set in a part of the world rich with indigenous greenery and distinguished natural beauty, the home, simply titled No 41, was conceived as just that; a contemporary rustic idyll and the home of a family looking to revegetate its 2.5 hectares of landscape, establishing a garden of indigenous species centred on a large natural pond.

Step inside this new, idyllic, rural house in Australia

No 41 was designed by architect Tristan Burfield, who jumped at the opportunity to create a piece of residential architecture within such a layered and serene setting. From wine production (the local Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are renowned) to truffle and berry farms, markets and walking trails, the plot is surrounded by nature - yet a number of Monterey Pines, brought into Australia in the 19th century and since smothering local vegetation, causing environmental concerns in Australia, also thrived on site.

Burlfield and his team removed the invasive species and crafted a new landscape (this was worked on by specialist Sam Cox), while forming a leafy environment offering views of the native garden, lake and Red Hill nature beyond.

Within this context, dominated by foliage, flowers and fruit, the architect designed this rural house in a simple, minimalist style, working with a restrained palette of materials - namely brick, timbers and a bit of steel for the battens. The neutral colours - grey blocks, black shou sugi ban spotted gum cladding and warm brown cypress - make for a fitting choice that lets the organic growth around it take centre stage.

Inside, spaces are composed to favour a generosity of scale - in their comfortable ceiling heights, the luxury of the natural materials used, and the openings that frame the surrounding landscape. A circulation space pierces the rural house's core, with kitchen and living areas flanking it on the main ground level.

The upstairs contains a primary bedroom suite and a study, with terraces offering an elevated view of the wider area. A wing extending off these main areas hosts guest rooms and secondary, breakaway rooms.

'In many ways the design and construction of this home took a backseat to its landscape. The home pushes its occupants outside, literally and figuratively. It goes without saying for all my work, but there is something particularly special about this project in seeing just how well it has grown into being a facilitator of life and living both within and on the greater site beyond,' the architect writes.

tristanburfield.au

Melbourne’s Southbank precinct has plenty of hotels, but none as design-forward as Hannah St Hotel. Occupying an awkward triangular block next to the King’s Way overpass – a site most developers would have ignored – the hotel wears its location as a badge of honour, with a bullnose façade that echoes New York’s Flatiron Building.

Developed by Time & Place in partnership with TFE Hotels, the 188-room property is part of the mixed-use Queensbridge development, a 65-storey tower that rises 209m above Southbank. The hotel alone cost $150 million to deliver, with local designer David Flack of Flack Studio responsible for the interiors.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hannah St Hotel, Melbourne

What’s on your doorstep?

Set a couple of blocks back from the Yarra River, the hotel touts its ‘15-minute city’ credentials, with an impressive roster of cultural institutions on the doorstep: National Gallery of Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Southbank Theatre, and Hosier Lane’s renowned street art. Major sporting venues such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Melbourne Park, where the Australian Open tennis is held, are also within reach, as are the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Its proximity to entertainment complex Crown puts a multitude of cuisines within a short walk, from Bistro Guillaume and Spice Temple to Nobu and Marmont, alongside the casino floor for those inclined.

Who is behind the design?

Callum Fraser of Fraser & Partners designed the building, positioning the main entrance beneath the overpass as an act of urban embrace rather than apology. The ten-storey bullnose podium features 274 custom-precast aerated concrete panels along the façade, engineered to evoke Melbourne’s volcanic bluestone, a material woven into the city’s built environment since the 1830s.

David Flack of Flack Studio, perhaps better known for his residential work, took on the interiors for his first whole-hotel project, drawing freely from across the decades: 1920s French and Italian modernism, 1930s art deco, 1950s curves, 1980s Memphis, with no single era dominating. The eclecticism extends to the corridors, where burnished stainless steel wayfinding meets red-painted ceilings – a nod to deco-era Tokyo and New York’s Grand Central Station.

An art programme curated almost entirely around women artists adds further depth: Justene Williams’ large transmorphic sculpture commands the double-height lobby, Georgia Spain’s figurative abstract painting dominates the alternate entrance, and photographer Jo Duck’s quirky portraits appear in rooms and suites.

The room to book

The triangular building generates a variety of irregular room configurations – angular, curved, pointed, but rarely square. Tying it all together is Flack Studio’s bespoke handiwork: blush-pink carpets, polished concrete ceilings, octagonal ottomans covered in bright Kvadrat Maharam fabrics, polished steel and brass joinery referencing Charlotte Perriand, and bathrooms finished in navy blue tiles, Carrara marble and terrazzo. Almost every piece of furniture, fixture and fitting has been custom-made; the sole exception is a single black swivel desk chair by Tecno in each room.

Entry-level Local and Traveller rooms start at 21 sq m and come with Malin + Goetz amenities, Marshall speakers, Dyson hairdryers and 55-inch smart TVs. For space, style and comfort, the Lookout Corner Suites are worth a look. At 45 sq m, they offer 270-degree city views through floor-to-ceiling glazing, with hairpin-shaped window lounges that follow the building’s curved geometry.

Top of the range is the Hannah Suite, a 58 sq m penthouse with kitchen, separate living and dining rooms, window-side bathtub and private terrace. Views here – overpass, Crown car park, city skyline – are proudly gritty, in keeping with the spirit of the place.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Five venues across the hotel are operated by Melbourne hospitality veterans The Mulberry Group. The day begins at Hannah St Coffee, a pavement-facing kiosk serving Square One espresso and freshly baked pastries to guests and passing locals.

Anchoring the ground floor is Coupette, an all-day European bistro that occupies the building’s curved front corner. Sunlight pours through wraparound windows into a high-ceilinged room centred on a U-shaped, marble-topped bar, with blue banquettes lining the walls.

Breakfast runs from bacon and egg rolls and avocado tartine to a blue swimmer crab omelette that is the standout of the morning menu. Lunch and dinner lean into European and Australian comfort fare: steak frites, côte de porc, grilled scampi with citrus butter, and crème brûlée or tiramisu to finish.

For drinks, Bar Hannah in the lobby is good for cocktails from mid-afternoon, while the intimate Carriage Lounge suits a late-evening whisky. The Terrace Lounge, an indoor-outdoor rooftop space on the tenth floor, serves spritzes by day and cocktails with music after dark, with views across Southbank and the city.

Where to switch off

The glass-roofed Clubhouse, shared between hotel guests and building residents, houses a black and white-tiled 25-metre-long swimming pool, steam room and sauna, and gym, with sun loungers and banquettes spilling onto an outdoor terrace.

The verdict

Hannah St Hotel makes a virtue of its awkward angles and setting, with a neighbourhood character likely to appeal to both overnight guests and local residents. Flack’s interiors give the hotel a distinctive edge, and it sits close to the city centre and within walking distance of Melbourne’s top cultural institutions, the Yarra River, green space and a strong roster of restaurants and bars.

Hannah St Hotel is located at 19 Walker Street, Southbank, Victoria 3006, Australia

A new viewing platform, the Southern Lookout, has just opened on the northern edge of Sydney. The structure, the work of local practice AJC Architects, has been designed to bring a contemporary visitor attraction and intervention that turns the spotlight onto Australia’s bushland – and in particular, this area surrounding a former quarry.

Discover Australia's new Southern Lookout

The project, an elegant, linear structure, 42m in length, sits elevated on a steeply sloped site, jutting out towards the leafy wilderness. It is one of the first initiatives in opening up the site to the public (it was previously out of bounds due to the quarry business), who can now visit the 60-hectare space thanks to ongoing landscape-led regeneration plans.

Taking its cues from the quarry's elemental and utilitarian nature, the Southern Lookout adopts a similarly industrial aesthetic with its weathering steel construction. Its form is 'simple and robust', the architects explain.

The platform's shape is striking – slender yet sturdy and crafted to have a minimal footprint on the nature below, to protect the surrounding ecosystem. It also achieves an impressive 18m span and a 6m cantilever, as it projects into the air towards the former quarry site.

The wider setting, titled Hornsby Park, is currently being reimagined by the local authorities, Hornsby Shire Council, as a public open area for locals and visitors to enjoy. Sydney-based AJC Architects and its emphasis on creativity and sustainable architecture were crucial in making the visitor attraction happen. The team worked on it together with the studio of Clouston Associates.

architectsajc.com

Eyrie Residence is full of Australian brutalist drama. Perched on a hill, it seems to emerge from its plot, surrounded by cascading valleys and a view of the Victorian Alps. This contemporary abode, designed by Schmölzer Architecture, is nestled on the outskirts of Beechworth, Victoria.

Tour this residential piece of Australian brutalism

Architect and firm founder Jeremy Schmölzer took inspiration from the expansive views and abundance of wildlife surrounding the site. ‘The starting point was to minimise the impact of the house on the hillside, allowing it to sit quietly within the escarpment rather than assert itself upon it,’ explains Schmölzer.

‘This led to a refined material approach, where a restrained palette of pre-cast concrete panels and muted tones dissolves into the landscape. The project naturally evolved into a courtyard typology, creating a protected internal landscaped courtyard that maintains a strong connection outward.’

The home's concrete façade provides the groundwork for the design's brutalist expression, contrasting with the surrounding scenery, which becomes a giant landscape painting of a backdrop, while openings create snapshots of the distant Mount Buffalo plateau. In turn, the natural setting serves to soften the property’s bold concrete forms.

The courtyard-style plan allows for a zoned approach to the design. The primary bedroom is located within a more secluded wing, and the guest rooms are along another wing, both offering valley views. The communal living area is open plan and accessible via both of these sections.

The most intriguing element of the project is the outdoor pool, which seemingly extends away from its hillside plot like an immersive portal into the valley. Schmölzer agrees, telling Wallpaper*, ‘The horizon pool is the most lasting impression of the project, where architecture is reduced to its most precise edge condition – a calibrated threshold between built form and distant landscape.

'It is conceived as an extension of the house, where the geometry resolves into a continuous plane that engages directly with the escarpment and distant Victorian Alps. Rather than framing or receding, the architecture operates as a deliberate instrument for intensifying the perception of the horizon. It is here that the relationship between structure and landscape is most fully articulated.’

The material palette softens the house's cast concrete silhouette. Natural honed stone in the kitchen, matched with grey linen sheers, an external metal curtain, and internal concrete flooring, creates harmony between interior and exterior.

Says Schmölzer, ‘From the entry sequence, there is a deliberate sense of transition and reveal, with framed views towards Mount Buffalo setting the tone for the experience. Inside, the landscape remains dominant, with interiors designed to feel as though they are hovering above the terrain. The eagle-watching and stargazing platform extends this condition outward, creating a heightened sense of suspension within the landscape.’

Eyrie Residence is a soothing retreat connected to nature. A place to unwind, relax and focus on the raw beauty of its expansive context.

schmolzer.com

Architecture studio Mathieson has just revealed a new Sydney penthouse – a private home set on a high-rise by the city's famous harbour, anchored in its setting through wide-reaching vistas that guide the gaze towards the blue horizon. The project, titled Kurraba Penthouse, was commissioned by local property developer Third.i, which partnered Mathieson, along with architecture firm SJB and landscape designer Dangar Barin Smith, to craft a home that makes the most of its spacious interior and expansive views.

Explore an expansive Sydney penthouse by Mathieson

Taking advantage of the property's large swathes of glazing, which offer up long views of Sydney’s waterfront parkland and the picturesque Kirribilli neighbourhood, the architecture team worked to balance this rich setting with a monochromatic interior, rooted in minimalism and refinement. This way, a gracefully uncluttered space, defined by careful dark accents and strategic materials, art and furniture frames the penthouse's main event – its striking cityscape and waterside aspect.

'The project continues our tradition of using a refined palette of materials applied in sophisticated layers,' says firm director, Phillip Mathieson. 'Natural stones like limestone and marble bring a comforting warmth to the space. The use of wire brushed oak veneers, lacquer, and patinaed metals has been carefully incorporated throughout the design to cultivate a refined and serene ambiance.'

The project was furnished in collaboration with luxury French furniture brand Liaigre, while an extensive art collection, curated by Mathieson in partnership with Artbank, dots the space. Offerings include unique pieces by artists such as Joel Elenberg, Brett Whitley, and Bronwyn Oliver.

A timber-panelled lobby greets visitors on the lower level of the duplex penthouse. The generous living spaces beyond include the dining and kitchen areas, while this flowing, open-plan interior can be divided using movable partitions as needed. Seamlessly stepping outside to the landscaped terrace and garden from there means that residents can have flexible entertaining arrangements as needed – indoors or al fresco.

The upper level contains four bedrooms, each with its own ensuite bathroom and dressing room. This spacious feel is underlined by the primary bedroom's custom stone bath and circular marble vanity, which have each been carved from single blocks of marble. It's this attention to material choices, as well as careful lighting design throughout, that make the interior exude a sense of effortless luxury, elevating the experience of urban living.

'In essence, our approach to lighting in the penthouse marries atmospherics and functionality, allowing light to be the transformative force that seamlessly integrates with the interior architecture, creating an enchanting and functional space,' Mathieson concludes.

mathiesonarchitects.com

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence. Here are the best new houses of February 2026.

A leafy Hampstead home

A timber-clad extension in Hampstead, London, immerses a family in nature, fully opening onto a lush garden to create a flexible indoor-outdoor living space. The architect, Mata, worked carefully around mature trees, collaborating with arboriculturists to protect roots while extending the home’s ground floor. Glazed walls, tapered stainless-steel undersides and bespoke furniture blur the boundary between interior and exterior, while thoughtfully-crafted terraces and furnishings ensure functionality without compromising the natural setting.

Read about it here.

A minimalist Spanish house

In Gijón, Asturias, Casa Guadalupe by Hanghar blends minimalist aesthetics with prefabricated industrial methods. Its lightweight steel frame and modular panels allowed rapid assembly – in just 48 hours – on stilts, reducing site disruption and preserving the landscape. The house follows the terrain, opening to panoramic rural vistas while maintaining a restrained, methodical architectural language. The project demonstrates a flexible, sustainable approach to 21st-century housing, balancing precision, spatial quality and landscape connection while challenging conventional ideas about prefab homes.

Read about it here.

An Australian architect’s home

Stephen Collier’s home in Scarborough, south of Sydney, sits on a triangular plot near a railway, organised around a central courtyard. Constructed from steel framing, fibrocement walls and tiled floors, it features movable furniture and joinery that allow spaces to be reshaped according to season or activity. The courtyard, open or enclosed, includes a Teppanyaki stove and Japanese-style bath, connecting indoor living to nature. Elevated on concrete columns with operable hatches, the house is responsive to its bush setting and local climate. Designed over 21 years, it balances privacy, playfulness and immersion in the environment.

Read about it here.

An immersive Nova Scotia residence

Perched on steel stilts between rocky inclines, Omar Gandhi’s East River Residence in Nova Scotia embraces its rugged coastal surroundings. The linear structure frames views of the Atlantic Ocean and surrounding forest, while cedar and metal cladding complement open-plan living, yoga spaces and cosy timbered bedrooms. Expansive windows connect interiors to terraces and patios, fostering a strong sense of connection to the outdoors. This is enhanced by the way that the building follows the site’s natural topography, touching only lightly on the land.

Read about it here.

An icon of British modernism

This month, Six Pillars, a Grade II*-listed home in Dulwich designed by Valentine Harding with Tecton in 1932-34 and restored by John Winter in 2000, came on the market. This classic example of British modernism spans 3,500 sq ft over three storeys, and retains original features such as chevron parquet flooring, steel-framed windows and an art deco fireplace. The angled plan creates fluid living spaces including an open-plan kitchen, principal living room, four bedrooms and a rooftop retreat, while the minimalist façade, clerestory windows and six cylindrical pillars define its iconic profile.

Read about it here.

A modern Utrecht house

In Utrecht, a 1992 house by Mart van Schijndel reimagines elements of a former glass warehouse in bold modernist terms. Awarded the Rietveld Prize and now a municipal monument, the home features a lavender-and-grey plaster façade, two trapezoidal patios and folded plywood furniture designed by the architect. Light floods the open living areas, blurring indoors and outdoors, while a mezzanine suite offers a tranquil escape. The house reflects van Schijndel’s innovative vision and Dutch modernist traditions, and is now awaiting a new custodian.

Read about it here.

A green retreat in Paraguay

‘A Forest in the House’, designed by Equipo de Arquitectura in 2025 on Ypacarai Lake, Paraguay, is a 260 sq m indoor-outdoor retreat inspired by jazz. Three pavilions surround a fenced garden, connected by patios, with the main house containing kitchen, dining and living areas. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors integrate the lush landscape, while concrete floors and roofs create terraces and continuity. Trees are incorporated as design elements, and natural light and wind animate the spaces, resulting in a fluid, playful environment existing in perfect harmony with its tropical surroundings.

Read about it here.

An architect-designed Paris apartment

In Paris’s 11th arrondissement, Cyrus Ardalan renovated a 65 sq m apartment into a minimalist, industrial-leaning home. West-facing light fills an open-plan living area that combines lounge, dining and office zones, connected to a glass-paste kitchen. Two courtyard-facing bedrooms, a shower room and integrated storage maintain the home’s clean lines, while custom plywood furniture and a pivot door conceal or reveal the workspace. The apartment reflects Ardalan’s blend of modernist minimalism, functional architecture and craft-inspired materiality.

Read about it here.

Tradition meets modernity in Ukraine

The Reed Roof Guesthouses in central Ukraine, designed by YOD Group, reinterpret traditional hata-mazanka huts in a contemporary, minimalist style. Each self-contained unit features curved glass facades, tall thatched roofs and concrete cores, creating airy, light-filled spaces, while heat pumps and air conditioning ensure year-round comfort. Inside, organic furniture and tactile carpets connect residents to the surrounding landscape, creating a serene, sensory experience.

Read about it here.

An LA gem on the market

Ray Kappe’s Kappe House (1967) in Pacific Palisades, LA, spans 4,157 sq ft over seven levels on a sloping Rustic Canyon site. Interlocking redwood beams, vertical concrete supports and vast frameless glazing define the midcentury modern home, which includes a double-height living room, glass-walled office, built-in timber furniture, lap pool with spa, sauna, and multiple terraces. The house, which was once described as ‘the greatest house in Southern California’ by the LA Times, was owned by the Kappe family until 2025 and has been listed for $11.5 million.

Read about it here.

When you have an address with the word ‘ocean’ in it, expectations are high. The aptly named Coastal House, in Victoria, Australia, does not disappoint – in location, views or design. The residence was designed by Splinter Society, a Melbourne-based architecture firm known for projects rooted in func­tion­al­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal sustainability – and Coastal House is no exception.

Tour this Australian seaside home, Coastal House

Both the client and the studio share an interest in the use of materials, in terms of functionality as well as honesty of expression. This was reflected in the material selection in relation to this site’s oceanside context, as it was important for the design to be able to withstand the harsh weathering that comes with living by the sea.

The residence was designed with a large family in mind. The client, a local builder, approached the studio to develop a house that would appeal to the local beach town property market. The chosen site was elevated and set back from the beach, offering expansive views of the coastline, while also being ideally connected to the nearby main street with all its shops and amenities.

'The primary challenge was the site’s exposure to strong coastal winds,' says Chris Stanley, co-founder of Splinter Society. 'To create outdoor spaces that could be genuinely used year-round, we carved a central courtyard with the living spaces opening directly onto it. The front of the house acts as a barrier, allowing the courtyard to remain sheltered while maintaining strong visual and spatial connections to the surrounding coastal environment.'

Designed with a semi-courtyard layout, the building wraps around a central outdoor space that holds a small oasis at its heart, complete with a refreshing pool. This arrangement was intentional, allowing a balance of indoor-outdoor living and creating a fun interplay of solidity with open, light-filled living spaces.

Bringing sustainable architecture principles to their material choice, the team clad the lower level in recessive recycled natural timber. There, you'll find guest bedrooms, amenities, a garage and storage. Stairs and a lift to connect this part of the house to the upper level.

Upstairs, a cantilevering concrete volume is situated to take in expansive beach views. To soften the concrete's presence, a textured limestone column is positioned to divide internal spaces. On this level, guests will find the main living spaces and primary bedrooms, the latter located at the rear of the home to ensure privacy while also allowing direct access to outdoor areas.

For Stanley, it is the ground floor entry sequence that he enjoys the most: ‘It feels like you come around a dune into the earth through the large timber pivot door. [I love] the way the limestone feels on your sandy bare feet as you walk in from the beach.'

The interior palette features natural and soft tones and furnishings. Hints of subtle texture and material variation add soothing intrigue. The interplay of natural materials and light is what defines this home and is reflected both internally and externally.

The beauty of Coastal House is its small, intimate pockets of space, the nooks that act as little areas of privacy and seclusion. For example, the main bedroom discreetly overlooks the central courtyard and pool, offering serene visual connections to the natural light and outdoor greenery. It is a holistic design that makes Coastal House a perfect fit for its laidback address.

splintersociety.com

One of Australia’s most celebrated properties, the Ball‑Eastaway House, is on the market for the first time. The residence is remarkable for many reasons: its location deep in the Australian bush, which demanded inventive, climate-sensitive solutions by Australia’s Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt, and its history as the home, studio and contemplative retreat for the abstract artist couple Sydney Ball and Lynne Eastaway. Completed in 1983, the house combines functional requirements with a profound responsiveness to its natural surroundings.

Situated in Glenorie, roughly an hour northwest of Sydney, the rugged site spans 25 acres of dry sclerophyll forest with a prominent rock ledge forming a natural platform. True to Murcutt’s philosophy that a building should coexist with the landscape rather than dominate it, the long, low house is elevated on slender steel-pipe columns, allowing air and water to flow beneath, and construction was carried out without removing a single tree.

The house is clad entirely in corrugated iron – and was Murcutt’s first residential project to employ the material in this way. Its gently curved roof and linear plan are deceptively simple, yet the design is rich with finely tuned details tailored to its climate. Edges are ‘feathered’ and steel components tapered to reduce visual and structural weight, while aluminium shading devices and timber interiors moderate light and temperature. Expansive north-facing glazed walls and skylights flood the interior with natural light – vital for Ball and Eastaway’s studios – while also subtly regulating ventilation and shading. The house exemplifies what Murcutt describes as a ‘real bush house’ – one that engages with the landscape as a living system of light, air, heat, rain and seasonal change rather than treating it as mere scenery.

Inside, the design is deeply informed by the creative lives of its occupants. Ball’s expansive paintings line a long internal wall, forming the spine of the house. Behind this wall lies a ‘secret’ northwest verandah, originally conceived as a meditation space. Two large studios, designed with the same sensitivity as the main house, have been the birthplace of many key works by Ball and Eastaway. During a jury visit for the 1984 Wilkinson Award, which the house subsequently won, the chair described this as ‘the most serene space he had ever been in’.

The home's environmental intelligence was pioneering in the early 1980s and remains influential in Australian architecture today. Its long, low form, finely crafted materials, and integration with the landscape reflect Murcutt’s dedication to sustainable, context-sensitive design, as well as achieving a rare harmony of art, life and nature.

The Ball-Eastaway House is listed with Modern House for a guide price of AUD 2.4-2.6 million (approx. £1.2-1.4 million)

Most architects dream of designing their own house. It took architect Stephen Collier 21 years – with the result being a new courtyard-style home at Scarborough, an hour’s drive south of Sydney. A search for a location that took five years, the path led to a modest, triangular-shaped site abutting a railway line – with a dramatic escarpment in the mix.

Tour this Scarborough house with a courtyard at its heart

Formerly a mining town, Scarborough has managed to escape the many large trophy homes springing up along the south coast. 'Most of the houses are simple so I was conscious of creating something appropriate and responding to both the scale of the nearby cottages and the site (650 square metres in area),' says Collier, who created a courtyard-style house, just perched just below the railway track. 'The trains give us that connection to Sydney’s more intense environment, making us feel less isolated,' adds Collier, who lives here with his partner.

Approximately 160 square metres in area, the Scarborough house is constructed in a steel frame with the walls clad in fibrocement – the roof in steel and the floors all tiled, with each space in a different coloured tile. Working with landscape architect Jane Irwin, the approach to the elevated home, supported on concrete columns with steel bracing, is via a meandering set of external stairs to the front door.

'The idea is that you walk straight into a series of ‘moving parts’,' says Collier. The kitchen, for example, features two separate joinery units, one in red, the other in pale blue, that can be easily moved around the kitchen bench. The central courtyard, framed by either sliding glass or timber panels, can be either completely closed or left open to the elements. The courtyard has a Teppanyaki stove for cooking as well as a Japanese-style bath. There are also two other bathrooms, one being an ensuite to the main bedroom and the second guest bathroom.

For Collier, the new house was an opportunity to explore ideas as much as to get as close as possible to nature. 'There’s the ability to both sleep and bathe under the stars.' And rather than have a set plan in the way spaces are used, they can adapt to suit the time of year. The winters in Scarborough can be chilly and often with reduced sunlight on the escarpment.

And while the house is currently set up aligned to the different coloured floor tiles, each area can be rejigged with moveable shelves and furniture, such as the Saarinen ‘Womb’ Chair easily straddling both the indoors and out. Likewise, the home’s many operable hatches, framing the eucalypts, are a continued reminder of this magical bush setting.

collierarchitects.com

The new Sydney Fish Market unites essential industry with public amenity. Its vast, undulating canopy shelters a unique vertical stacking of wholesale trade, crowned by an open-air public hall. Marking the beginning of an urban transformation of a working bay on Sydney Harbour, the building's stepped massing operates in the round with a strong civic presence.

Industrial in scale yet delicate in expression, the two-hectare roof comprises 407 pyramidal aluminium modules that peel up like fish gills, creating apertures that admit indirect sunlight. These sit within a diagonal grid of deep timber laminate trusses, supported on fine cruciform columns, so the canopy appears to float. The ensemble creates a bright, dynamic interior atmosphere, complementing the glass, stainless steel, aluminium and ceramic detailing of the building's enclosure – a material palette that reflects its technical character.

Step inside the new Sydney Fish Market

Sustainable architecture is united with operational needs underpinned by GXN, the green research arm of Danish architects 3XN (the project was designed by 3XN GXN, in association with BVN Architecture and landscape architects Aspect Studios, and delivered by Infrastructure NSW on behalf of the NSW Government). The roof is topographically mapped to harvest rainwater, meeting half the buildings’ water demands. Energy consumption is reduced as harbour breezes flow beneath the market hall roof, while daylight ensures brightness even on overcast days. The modules were prefabricated on a nearby harbour island, barged and hoisted into place; the Italian glulam timber never touched the road.

Across a 24-hour cycle, workers, visitors, seafood, and machinery move through a carefully choreographed system. In an open circulation core, travelators connect the basement delivery docks and parking to the market hall on the upper level. En route, large windows offer public views to the wholesale trading floor between, revealing early-morning operations – trolleys lined with fish, large ice machines in action and climate-controlled rooms accommodating different live crustaceans. Climatised truck lifts move products efficiently between temperature-controlled zones, loading docks and processing areas, maintaining the cold chain.

Set on the building’s perimeter, the raked, three-storey auction hall opens itself to the public realm, where passers-by can glimpse the intensity within. In the early morning, up to 160 buyers bid as the space operates as an urban theatre, where commerce becomes spectacle.

Above, an open-air market hall buzzes into the evening. Laid out across internal streets are fishmongers and restaurants, with glazed offices and a cooking school on top. Stepped terraces and ramps draw the public upward from the ground plane, creating an active public realm with 24-hour waterfront access. From these elevated platforms, views stretch toward the city, harbour and foreshore neighbourhoods, framed by the geometric roof.

On opening day, Sydneysiders swarmed the building, a testament to the market’s place in the city’s psyche. As visitors and workers moved through this building as landscape, industry met tourism, and architecture became part of the performance of the city.

3xn.com

bvn.com.au

aspect-studios.com

Hugh Allen, the wunderkind Australian chef who earned three hats – the country’s highest restaurant rating – at Vue de Monde before his 27th birthday, is on a mission. And now, barely 30, he has transformed a rundown pavilion in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens into Yiaga, a soigné 44-seat restaurant focused on native ingredients and local farms.

Yiaga, Melbourne

The site has served refreshment since 1908, first as the Kiosk tearooms, replaced by the Pavilion café in the 1960s, before ceasing trading several years ago. Allen discovered the space during Melbourne’s first lockdown in 2019, recognising it as the perfect spot for his debut solo venture.

Working with renowned local architect John Wardle, Allen preserved only the existing roof and structure while reimagining everything beneath. ‘Hugh was keen on an ‘Australian zen’ warmth to the interiors,’ says Wardle, adding that the collaboration led to a deep friendship forged through a shared passion for makers and making. For starters, Allen insisted that the approach to Yiaga should matter as much as the meal itself.

In the local Wurundjeri language, yiaga means ‘seek and find’, a reference to the journey of discovery that diners must undertake through Victorian-era gardens past tree-lined avenues, lake and conservatory, possibly glimpsing possums, lorikeets and microbats along the way before arriving eventually at Wardle’s sleek, low-slung pile. This layered arrival sequence – garden to path to doorway to portal to reception to cellar – amplifies the occasion through deliberate pacing, each transition preparing diners for the next experience while respecting the threshold between public garden and private feast.

The entrance commands attention. Designed by Wardle and Simon Lloyd, and crafted by ceramicist Robert Gordon, more than 13,000 individually formed tiles curve around the interior walls, their terracotta texture mimicking the bark of the surrounding Scottish elm trees. Wardle says, ‘the tiles were sketched, then modelled up to develop a single one that could be formed around the varying contours’.

Floor-to-ceiling glazing dissolves the boundary between dining room and garden, and the majority of diners face towards the open kitchen rather than the view on the basis that Allen didn’t want servers interrupting conversations or sight lines to discuss menus or deliver plates.

The material palette draws entirely from local craftsmanship. Furniture maker Ross Thompson shaped blackwood timber into the cellar and drinks trolley, while designer Jon Goulder crafted custom chairs built for lingering. The private dining table, created by Vivienne Wong from cypress trees planted by one Baron Ferdinand von Mueller in the 1800s, connects diners to the site’s colonial heritage. Glass artist Alexandra Hirst formed the dining glassware by hand, and metalsmith Tobi Bockholt forged the kitchen knives.

This commitment to place extends to Allen’s menu. Retired Blackmore Wagyu breeding cows, prized for their depth of flavour after lives spent grazing pastures, ground the protein selections. Foraged wakame seaweed surfaces in desserts, while Gippsland dairy enriches dishes with Victorian terroir, and Queensland’s coral trout carries the warmth of northern waters south. Native herbs – river mint and Geraldton waxflower, among them – perfume plates with distinctly Australian aromatics. These ingredients form the backbone of Yiaga’s single-sitting service each evening.

And the absence of table turnover allows Allen’s team of 12 chefs to work at a more measured pace. ‘All tables are equal, none more special than others,’ says Wardle. This democratic approach extends to the views: every seat offers similar perspectives of the kitchen and the garden. Though both are worthy of your undivided attention, this could make for a tricky evening.

Yiaga is located at Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne 3002, Australia.

This article appears in the January 2026 Next Generation Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

The new year brings travel into focus. While the months ahead may herald anticipated openings, 2025 has already delivered a series of assured arrivals – hotels led by design, intent and context. From Taipei’s first luxury opening in over a decade to the long-awaited Chancery Rosewood, and a Saudi resort carved into the landscape itself, these projects stand apart. Each has a singular character, and each is worth the journey.

The best hotel openings of 2025

Capella Taipei

Long-awaited in the Taiwanese capital, Capella Taipei marked the city’s first true luxury hotel debut in over a decade. Conceived by André Fu, the hotel occupies part of a newly built glass tower by Tokyo’s Mori Building Group, unfolding as a modern urban mansion shaped by the Hong Kong-born designer’s own encounters with Taipei. The 86-room property sits in a calm, subtle palette, where bespoke fixtures and artisanal details form a sophisticated urban bolthole. Four on-site restaurants sharpen the hotel’s profile, while the dramatic Glasshouse crowns the ensemble with a three-storey bar complex. A minimalist spa, finished with beige barrel-vaulted ceilings, completes the picture with celestial, lunar-led treatments.

Capella Taipei is located at No. 139, DunHua N Rd, Songshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 105

Read our full review of Capella Taipei

The Chancery Rosewood

Once Eero Saarinen’s modernist vision of American diplomacy, the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square re-emerged this year as The Chancery Rosewood. A sensitive restoration saw British architect Sir David Chipperfield and French interior designer Joseph Dirand recast the Grade II-listed landmark as an all-suite hotel defined by Rosewood’s high-touch hospitality. Across 144 suites, softened geometries, tactile layering, and a palette of neutrals and burnished tones create a cocooning sense of calm; a language echoed through all public spaces and the Asaya Spa. Eight restaurants and bars introduce their own unhurried atmospheres, including the first European outpost of New York institution Carbone and Japanese chef Masa Takayama’s Tobi Masa. Meanwhile, the seventh-floor Eagle Bar opens onto panoramic views across London.

The Chancery Rosewood is located at 30 Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 9AN, UK

Read our full review of The Chancery Rosewood

Desert Rock Resort

Set within Saudi Arabia’s dramatic Hejaz mountains, Desert Rock Resort rises directly from millennia-old granite. Fifty-four villas and ten suites feel almost geological. Conceived by Oppenheim Architecture, the resort doesn’t impose itself on the terrain; it yields to it. Stone quarried during construction was folded back into the architecture. Studio Paolo Ferrari brought the same reverence to the interiors, allowing the raw power of the setting to remain the focal point. Dining unfolds across Nyra’s elemental wood-fire kitchen, Mica’s forward-thinking cocktail programme, Basalt’s reassuring comfort dishes, and Wadi’s lively poolside scene. On the valley’s far edge sits the spa, built against a towering rock face.

Desert Rock Resort is located at 7GQVP67Q+5P 48561, Saudi Arabia

Read our full review of Desert Rock Resort

The Eve Hotel Sydney

The Eve Hotel Sydney arrived as a vibrant new marker on the cusp of the Central Business District. Designed as a warm brick-and-biophilic low-rise by local firm SJB, with landscape architect Daniel Baffsky and interior designer George Livissianis, the hotel balances architectural restraint with bursts of colour. The 102 rooms, hued to the Australian bush, each feature balconies overlooking shingled rooftops and greenery. On the food front, guests can choose between Bar Julius, a European-inflected lobby bar, and Lottie, the rooftop Mexican restaurant and mezcaleria. Also upstairs, the Sukabumi-tiled rooftop pool beckons, though the surrounding mix of native and exotic flora demands equal attention.

The Eve Hotel Sydney is located at 8 Baptist St, Redfern NSW 2016, Australia

Read our full review of The Eve Hotel Sydney

Few & Far Luvhondo

Husband-and-wife adventurers Jacob and Sarah Dusek introduced Few & Far Luvhondo, a safari eco-lodge offering front-row access to the raw wilderness of South Africa’s Limpopo province. Designed by Nicholas Plewman Architects in collaboration with Ohkre Collective, the lodge’s six cliff-edge suites take their sculptural cues from Africa’s most emblematic trees, notably the monumental baobabs that anchor the surrounding landscape. Nature continues indoors, where clay-toned earths, sky blues and deep greens echo the terrain. In the kitchen, chef Nhlakanipho Soxhela leads a thoughtful farm-to-table programme celebrating regional cooking. Days unfold through immersive encounters with land and culture, from daily game drives to outdoor yoga sessions or guided mindfulness practices.

Few & Far Luvhondo is located at R523, Waterpoort, 3813, South Africa

Read our full review of Few & Far Luvhondo

La Fondation

Once a parking lot, La Fondation emerged as a brutalist shell softened by warm hues and muted tones that ripple through its ten floors. Paris-based architecture firm PCA-STREAM reimagined the exterior, while New York studio Roman and Williams infused the interiors with a modern, eclectic character, accented by nods to Piet Mondrian’s De Stijl palette and geometry. Muted tones and artisanal detailing define the 58 guest rooms, and two on-site dining venues offer a mix of French classics and contemporary dishes overseen by chef Thomas Rossi. The latest opening from Groupe Galia also introduces open co-working areas, a health club with a climbing wall, a spa with a semi-Olympic pool, and a rooftop garden with views from Sacré-Cœur to the Eiffel Tower.

La Fondation is located at 40 Rue Legendre, 75017 Paris, France

Read our full review of La Fondation

Patina Osaka

With the Osaka Expo pulling global focus, Patina Osaka debuted at just the right moment. Set in a 20-storey glass tower by Jun Mitsui & Associates Inc. Architects, the property, which marked the Japan debut for the Singapore-based group, sits between the Osaka Castle and Naniwa-no-Miya-Ato Park. Tokyo-based studio Strickland shaped the interiors with crisp Japanese geometries, softened by sculptural curves and copper accents that nod to the castle. Five dining concepts anchor the hotel, fronted by P72, where Japan’s 72 micro-seasons inform dishes served beneath a dramatic timber ‘roots’ installation. The Patina Spa is the real draw, offering hyperbaric oxygen, cryotherapy and holistic treatments for a full-spectrum reset.

Patina Osaka is located at 3-91, Banba-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka, 540-0007, Japan

Read our full review of Patina Osaka

The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien

A ten-building beach resort with plenty of swagger became The Standard’s fourth outpost in Thailand, pairing luxury with the brand’s trademark wit and creative flair. Led by the group’s global head of design, Verena Haller, alongside DIN Studio and Studio Lupine, The Standard Pattaya Na Jomtien occupies a sculptural white complex by Thai firm Onion, whose undulating curves echo their work for The Standard Bangkok and Hua Hin. Its 161 rooms, offered in seven generous configurations, feature high ceilings and sunlight-drenched spaces. Dining spans Sereia, an elegant seafood restaurant sourcing from Thailand’s eastern seaboard, and Esmé, a beach bar channelling CDMX street food. The adults-only spa, Mmhmmm, embraces the mud-bathing renaissance with a dedicated outdoor terrace for the ritual.

The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien is located at 8/12 Moo 2, Soi Na Jomtien 10, Na Jomtien, Sattahip, Chonburi 20250, Thailand

Read our full review of The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien

Villa Dubrovnik

Long a friend of Wallpaper,* Brazilian architect Arthur Casas and his studio led the reimagining of Villa Dubrovnik, the 1961 modernist landmark perched dramatically above the Dalmatian coast. Guided by the Croatian philosophy of fjaka –an artful devotion to unhurried living – the interiors are measured and serene, grounded in local tradition. Custom blankets and cushions, woven with patterns drawn from regional dialects, thread a quiet sense of place through all 56 rooms. Dining unfolds across moods: Restaurant Pjerin for refined dégustation or à la carte dining, Giardino for relaxed lunches, and aperitivo-worthy views at Libero Bar or the rooftop Galanto Bar. When the Adriatic sun takes its toll, the spa delivers restorative facials, massages, and exfoliating rituals.

Villa Dubrovnik is located at Ul. Vlaha Bukovca 6, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Read our full review of Villa Dubrovnik

W New York – Union Square

W Hotels’ evolution trades party-first theatrics for grown-up confidence, without losing its spark. The shift is clearest at W New York – Union Square, the global flagship, alongside newer openings in Florence and Budapest. Opened in 2000, the hotel has been reimagined by original architects Rockwell Group with a lighter, more assured hand. Its 256 rooms and suites balance scale with playfulness. On the food front, Seahorse pairs heritage and modernity with unmistakable New York ease; the high-energy Living Room (once a ballroom) serves cocktails and light bites, flowing into the laid-back Living Room Café; and upstairs, the 17th floor is home to Union Square’s only rooftop bar.

W New York – Union Square is located at 1567 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, United States

Read our full review of W New York – Union Square

In a former life, Australian designer Ella Saddington worked in fashion: over a decade, she recalls witnessing ‘the slow unravelling of what was once a thriving and diverse local manufacturing sector,’ from textile production, hand cutting and sewing operations, to tailoring. This inspired her to shift her focus to craft ‘not just as an aesthetic choice, but as a form of resilience, a kind of memory, and a way of staying materially connected to the world around us.’ To her admission, she has since become an evangelist for vocational training and skill transmission: ‘I believe hands-on knowledge is vital, not nostalgic, but forward-facing. It’s a way of thinking as much as doing.’

Cordon Salon: welcome to Ella Saddington's multifaceted creative universe

A creative that doesn’t fit into a tight definition (words like craftsperson, artist, and researcher equally describe her practice), Saddington started her studio Cordon Salon as a route to the exploration of skills and craft from an anthropological context, merging knowledge and theory to create something tangible and meaningful that is both reflective of artisanal traditions and explores that are the possible futures of craft.

Growing up on a farm (‘not quite the outback, but remote enough that resourcefulness was essential, when something broke or needed fixing, you couldn’t just head to the shops’), Saddington learned from an early age about problem solving. ‘That environment taught me to observe closely, to understand how things were made, and to learn by doing,’ she says. ‘Often you’d pick up knowledge by looking at how someone else had solved a problem, or by paying attention to the remnants of past repairs. Even now, I find myself noticing how things are joined or how someone has patched a leaky tap. I’m still drawn to those quiet moments of everyday design and improvisation. That mindset of problem-solving, noticing, and giving something a go still underpins the way I work today.’

Craftsmanship has underpinned her career from the start: when asked about mentors and inspirations to her work, she credits her late grandmother, whose attitude was that making things by hand was always going to be more valuable than buying. ‘That stuck,’ she notes. The work of masters of craft like William Morris and Josef Hoffman has also been influential in shaping her career in design, for their world-building approach, but ultimately, she admits that inspiration comes from right around her: ‘it’s the people around me who have had the biggest impact, there’s a really special community of artists, designers, and craftspeople here in Australia. We push each other, support each other, and hold each other accountable in all the best ways.’

Among her most significant design projects so far is a collection of lamps made of stainless steel and aluminium. Titled ‘Garniture’, the series was informed by a 2024 applied research fellowship with the International Specialised Skills Institute, for which she travelled across Europe exploring Western European plate steel armour from a historical and technical perspective. ‘The experience was completely transformative and reshaped the way I think about design,’ she says. ‘It gave me the confidence to draw from the past not out of nostalgia, but as a source of technical, material, and conceptual innovation.’ Observing the lamps, their metal sheets folded onto a conical shape, it is clear how the experience was distilled and modernised into a concise design language.

Her ongoing series of mirrors is equal part functional design, artwork and visual poetry. Made of sheets of glass with irregular colour blobs framing the surface, they are the result of a rigorous process of several steps that include diamond-polishing, silver pouring, spraying colour - each object is different, and the concept has also been translated into colourful room dividers that help showcase the resulting glowing colours and reflections.

Looking for a thread connecting her work isn’t immediate, as all her collections and design explorations seem worlds apart from one another. From prism lights to waxed steel vessels and lamps, what connects her work, she explains, is the concept of transformation, how materials respond to a process and how making can enhance their characteristics. ‘I’ve worked with everything from metal, glass, textiles and plaster,’ she says, also adding that much of her work is about finding contemporary applications for production processes that have been forgotten. So far, her material library includes materials and techniques such as scagliola, stained glass, etching and engraving.

‘For me, it’s about finding the right material for the right idea, and then letting the process guide me,’ she explains. ‘I also think a lot about how materials can carry narrative. How they age, how they’re touched, how they speak to the time they were made in. If an object can tell a story, that’s successful for me.’

These days, a stellar cocktail alone no longer seems enough to lure a crowd. The more retro the bar, the better – and if it doesn’t come with a curated vinyl library and a high-fidelity sound system, it barely warrants the detour. Record bars, inspired by Japanese kissa culture, continue their global ascent, placing the audio experience at the centre of hospitality (recent openings include Jaç Hi-Fi Café in Barcelona and Side A in San Francisco). The latest to join the movement is LB’s Record Bar in Melbourne, owned by the Sydney-based hospitality group Merivale.

LB’s Record Bar, Melbourne

Tucked into Meyers Place laneway, between Bourke and Little Collins Streets, LB’s is conceived as a portal. ‘LB’s is designed to feel like the kind of bar you stumble into and instantly want to stay,’ says Nasim Koerting, Merivale’s design director. ‘We wanted warmth, nostalgia and a sense of discovery, as if the design had always been there, except you’ve just discovered a gem in the heart of the city.’

A façade of small mosaic tiles sets the tone, punctuated by wall-mounted tables and mushroom-style lamps that extend the ambience outdoors. Toy-like orange stools bring playfulness to the streetscape, while two generous windows offer a glimpse inside: a neon-washed interior where colour, texture and sound converge. Inside, music shaped the brief. ‘Everything radiates from the idea of a bar built around the ritual of playing records. There are acoustic treatments on all surfaces,’ Koerting adds.

An original horseshoe bar grounds the room, restored and wrapped in a timber terrazzo top. Carpet underfoot and velvet upholstery heighten the sense of warmth, amplified by ceiling-mounted strip lights that bathe the space in a saturated red glow. Oversized speakers and walls lined with vintage records sourced from local independent stores become architectural features – almost altarpieces. Multi-level bench seating wraps the perimeter in an amphitheatre-like arrangement, while a disco ball and graphic ceiling grid nod to a 1970s-80s lineage, reinterpreted with contemporary restraint.

The drinks offering carries the same intent. Husband-and-wife duo Michale and Zara Madrusan, also behind Melbourne’s acclaimed The Everleigh, Heartbreaker and Bar Margaux, have devised an agave-forward menu. Do not miss the LB’s House Margarita, made with Altos Plata tequila, mezcal, mandarin, lime and a grasshopper salt rim. Clever riffs on classics follow: an aerated Dancefloor Martini, a suite of Daiquiris, thoughtful wine selections and compelling spirit-free options.

LB’s Record Bar is located at 12 Meyers Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia.

If there’s one thing that Wallpaper* does well, it’s houses – spotlighting architecturally arresting gems from around the globe and spanning the spectrum of modern design. Our inboxes are overflowing with news of the world’s most boundary-pushing architectural projects, and we strive to bring you the very best.

To ensure you don’t miss a thing – and to showcase the scope of residential architecture today – we’ve launched a monthly series: The Architecture Edit. Each instalment will highlight our favourite houses of the month: buildings that demonstrate creative planning, innovative methods and, of course, aesthetic excellence.

A Williamsburg loft

Brooklyn studio Of Possible has completed 103 Grand Street, a loft-style residential building containing two duplexes and a triplex. Each unit is defined by triple-height spaces, tall windows and abundant daylight, evoking the neighbourhood’s industrial-conversion past. Architect Vincent Appel prioritised not just floor area but vertical volume, seeking to elevate spatial quality. Meanwhile, interiors feature tactile materials – timber, stone and linen-like textures – for an organic, minimalist feel. While the street façade adopts classic Brooklyn brick, the rear reveals playful stacked volumes clad in custom fluted terracotta, creating terraces and outdoor rooms that encourage neighbourly interaction.

A Czech studio

Päivä Architekti’s Studio Above the Golden Canyon extends an existing home in the Czech village of Luka pod Medníkem with a new timber structure woven into a steep, wooded site. The addition, which overlooks the Sázava River, includes an open studio with mezzanine, an en-suite bedroom and a utility zone, linked to the original house by a covered walkway that incorporates a mature oak tree. Constructed from steel, tanned larch cladding, engineered spruce interiors and concrete flooring, part of the studio cantilevers over the landscape, with large sliding glass panels dissolving the boundary between interior and nature.

An Australian sanctuary

Amongst the Eucalypts by Jason Gibney Design Workshop is a New South Wales holiday home that sits lightly on its site, following the natural contours to form outdoor rooms and sheltered courtyards. Despite its serene minimalism, the house is engineered for bushfire resilience – developed with bushfire specialists and local craftspeople. The design incorporates pivoting façade panels, retractable mesh shutters and durable materials that allow the building to shift from openness to full protection. Its concrete and fibre-cement shell creates an ‘armoured’ yet contemporary aesthetic, demonstrating that fire-resistant architecture can be elegant and sustainable.

A Miami retreat

A couple in Miami commissioned Brillhart Architecture to create a home immersed in a lush, jungle-like double lot in historic Morningside – an approach inspired by the neighbourhood’s garden origins and Florida’s tropical modernism. Rather than clearing the hundreds of mature trees on site, the architects mapped the vegetation and arranged a 4,100 sq ft residence as four pavilions connected by glass corridors and open walkways. Elevated 30 inches above ground, the home appears to float among strangler figs, live oaks and gumbo-limbo trees, while shou sugi ban siding and ipe shutters merge with the greenery, and calm interiors of pale stone and wood frame continuous garden views.

A mid-century icon

The Stahl House – an icon of mid-century modernism perched in the Hollywood Hills – was listed for sale for $25 million this month. Designed by Pierre Koenig and immortalised in Julius Shulman’s 1960 photograph, its glass-walled design and cinematic views helped define California modernism. Though modest at 2,200 sq ft with two bedrooms, it has remained largely unchanged since completion, and retains its original open-plan kitchen, unrenovated bathrooms and legendary pool. The home has remained in the Stahl family for 65 years and was designated a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1999; it requires thoughtful stewardship, and the owners hope to find a buyer who appreciates its architectural legacy.

A renovated winery

Near Lisbon, Quinta do Álamo transforms the ruins of an old winery into a minimalist retreat for two musicians. Atelier Matteo Arnone organised the plan around symmetry, driven by the need for two identical recording studios. The long, linear structure is carved with voids and internal patios that draw daylight deep inside, while gentle curves introduce softness. The ground floor houses a combined living room, kitchen and bedroom; above, the twin studios are embedded within the building’s thick perimeter walls. Patios and passages thread through the home toward the pool, resulting in a serene, balanced composition defined by rhythm and light.

An Indian farmhouse

On a two-acre site in Karnataka, Taliesyn Design & Architecture’s House by the Grove reimagines a farmhouse as a porous, nature-immersed dwelling. The 5,400 sq ft home uses verandas, open walkways and sliding glass partitions to merge the indoors and out, while materials such as hand-finished cement, steel, Sira stone and Kota stone root the architecture in its boulder-strewn landscape. A soaring great room with operable façades forms the social heart, flanked by long verandas beneath a pitched roof clad in Mangalore tiles. Bedrooms feature open-to-sky bathrooms, and a second floor – accessed via an external stair – contains a library, another en-suite bedroom and walkways overlooking the great hall.

A London rooftop

Studio Felicity Bell has transformed a Clerkenwell rooftop into a minimalist home with sweeping views across London. Built atop a former industrial building once inhabited by the owners, the addition is set back from the street façade to form a wraparound terrace and reduce visual impact. The new structure’s columns align with the original building’s piers, creating a grid that alternates between open, pergola-like bays and glazed panels. Inside, a generous open-plan living space surrounded by glass frames views of the City and BT Tower. The adaptable interior to shifts between working, living and hosting, with a stained-oak monolith conceals a studio, desk and guest bed.

Seal Rocks offers the perfect backdrop for an Australian holiday home – the site in New South Wales is rich in natural life (a breeding site for its namesake animal), overlooking the blue sea and awash with greenery. Yet anyone aware of the country's devastating bushfires of 2020 will know that such a glorious setting can also be vulnerable to human-made disaster. Amongst the Eucalypts is a new residential project that aims to tackle just that – providing a modern, architecture-led house that at the same time can resist fire damage.

Openness meets protection in this Australian holiday home

The design is centred on the idea of creating a contemporary refuge, carefully balancing immersion in nature and the idea of shelter. The architects crafted a design that feels elegantly pared down, using minimalist lines and simple geometries that contrast with, and also highlight, the surrounding native eucalypts and casuarina forest. Its compact form is deliberate, affording a sense of lightness.

The architects explain: 'The home appears lightly anchored to the hillside, the plan breaking and shifting with the natural contours of the land to form a series of outdoor zones and courtyards that support open-air living and quiet retreat. Though fully grounded, the building conveys a sense of suspension among the trees, with filtered light and carefully framed sightlines revealing glimpses of the wider landscape.'

At the same time, this Australian holiday home includes pivoting façade panels, retractable mesh shutters and durable, locally sourced materials. These features allow the home to be open and at one with the surrounding nature – or remain closed off, protecting its interior and carefully cocooning life inside.

The architectural design was conceived after in-depth consultation with local bushfire experts, as well as local craftspeople, who helped create a number of the bespoke systems employed in the house. The concrete and fibre-cement structure gives the house its 'armoured aesthetic', as the architects describe it; but it's a look that is at the same time refreshingly clean and unmistakably contemporary.

'The clients didn’t want to impose on the landscape – they wanted a house that invited them to dwell more deeply within it. It was their commitment to preserving the native landscape that inspired us to rethink what’s possible in bushfire-prone environments,' says practice founder Jason Gibney.

'The result is a sense of lightness and suspension, a profound connection to place: goannas wander past, waterfalls rush by, and the canopy reveals itself through shifting viewpoints. More than a place of shelter, the house balances openness and refuge, lightness and permanence. It teaches us that we do not have to compromise when choosing to live amongst the eucalyptus.'

jgdw.com.au

A new book by long-term Wallpaper* staffer, writer and editor Léa Teuscher explores the diverse expressions of library design across the world. '[They are] symbols of the power of learning, they can be the key to democracy, or become battlegrounds for culture wars,' she writes in the book's introduction. 'Or, they might be safe spaces where public debate thrives and creative gatherings abound.'

In her new book, 150 Libraries You Need to Visit Before You Die, for Lannoo Publishers, Teuscher has collected the world's best, from architect-designed temples of culture to historical palaces of books, to grassroots initiatives that bring reading to the people.

Here, she picks fifteen libraries from the book, to give us a taste of the global diversity of the genre.

Craigieburn Library, Australia

Australian architects Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp of FJCstudio designed the Craigieburn Library in 2014, using locally sourced rammed earth, which they chose for 'its thermal properties and for its symbolic resonance, embedding the building in the very ground from which it rises'. The steel and timber roof structures are lightweight and conceived as a series of interlocking pavilions. On the grounds is also an art gallery and café. When it opened, the Craigieburn Library was honoured as the IFLA Public Library of the Year for the way it created ‘a sense of belonging for all, as both a learning centre and a gathering place for the city'.

Beijing Library, China

'This glass-lined library by Snøhetta boasts the world’s largest reading space, a forest of soaring ginkgo columns and a valley of books,' writes Teuscher. From an architectural perspective, the Beijing Library features the world’s largest climatised reading space and China’s largest load-bearing glass system, while inside, it is built as a landscape with volumes shaped like hills separating its spaces. Its high-tech design also comprises the largest automated book storage system in the world and the highest attainable sustainability standard in the country.

Muyinga Library, Burundi

'Muyinga’s first library tells an important story about how to think and build differently,' writes Teuscher. Designed by Belgian practice BC Architects and Studies, the Burundi library is part of an inclusive school for deaf children and was built from earth blocks masonry and baked clay tiles, employing a local labour force and supporting the local economy. A superb example of welcoming design that serves a social function, the Muyinga library also features a large sisal hammock, woven from plants found on the construction site and accessed through a bookshelf that also serves as a ladder.

Drummondville Public Library, Canada

Canada's Drummondville library is connected to the city's history and winter sport mission. Designed by Chevalier Morales with DMA Architectes, the building's aesthetic nods to the city's steel and hydropower heritage, and its silhouettes are inspired by the neighbouring outdoor ice rink, of which the reading rooms have a view. 'An innovative pairing of sport and culture, this award-winning, immensely popular library is proudly of its time and of its place,' writes Teuscher.

Yuyarina Pacha Library, Ecuador

The Yuyarina Pacha children's library was born from the efforts of a reading club organised by local associations Laboratorio Creativo Sarawarmi and Witoca, and designed in 2024 by Quito-based practice Al Borde. 'A space for knowledge, this rainforest library is a symbol of the ability of rural communities to take charge of their own development and learning,' writes Teuscher. The building reflects local techniques, with a structure made of chonta, an Amazonian palm known for its durability and strength, a steep thatched roof and a glass skylight.

Cloud Cave Library, China

Designed like 'a portal to another dimension,' this library is part of the redevelopment of Haikou's coastline and was designed in 2021 by MAD Architects. Nicknamed 'The Wormhole' for the architects' intention to create ‘a journey transcending time and space', the 10,000-book library features a smooth, curved concrete structure with cave-like rooms. ‘Architecture, art, humanity and nature meet here, opening up a journey of visitors’ imaginations to explore and appreciate the meaning that different beauties bring to their lives,’ says MAD’s Ma Yansong

Oodi, Finland

This multifunctional space by ALA Architects opened in 2018 and its offering, including a cinema, workshops with 3D printers, a video games room and a reading room embodies what a contemporary library should be. ‘Everyone is welcome at Oodi, and equality is the most important of the library’s values – together with freedom of expression,’ says its director Anna-Maria Soininvaara.

L'Animu Porto Vecchio, France

'Nestled among olive trees, this building by Dominique Coulon & Associés symbolises the importance of the local public library in France,' writes Teuscher. This library opened in 2021, the same year the French government declared libraries 'an essential public service’. The architects created a building that complements the surrounding landscape, informed by the location of the olive trees and rocks found on site, and includes a garden, shaded terrace and summer bar.

Oscar Niemeyer Library, France

'A once dormant hall has been turned into a stylish cultural hub now bustling with readers,' says Teuscher of this building, one of two volcano-shaped Oscar Niemeyer structures in Le Havre. The space was originally conceived in the late 1970s as a cultural hall among the modernist apartment blocks of Auguste Perret. Niemeyer gave permission in 2006 to transform the building into a public library, a transformation led by Françoise Sogno and Deshoulières Jeanneau to update the space with natural light and a winter garden.

Library of Birmingham, UK

'Uniting the ‘written and the spoken word’, this library and theatre is an ode to the circle, wrapped in a delicate filigree façade inspired by the city’s crafts and industries,' writes Teuscher of the Mecanoo-designed Birmingham library. The design references the city’s jewellery heritage and steel industry and it is based on eight rotundas, including a golden room on the roof which is home to the library’s Victorian Shakespeare Memorial.

City of Parramatta Library (Phive), Australia

In the Western Sydney suburb of Parramatta, this library was completed in 2023 by Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, and inspired by local flora, with a roof shaped to maximise sunlight and communicate with the surrounding infrastructure. ‘The carefully sculpted final volume gives the impression of literally bending under the passage of the sun across the sky,’ explains Gautrand. The library includes a children’s centre, a theatre, and a Keeping Place dedicated to local Indigenous artefacts and reserved for the Aboriginal Dharug people.

Shanghai Library East, China

'Evoking a scholar’s rock in a Chinese garden, this beautifully detailed, art-filled cultural hub appears to float above Shanghai’s Century Park,' writes Teuscher. Designed by Danish studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL), it was completed in 2022 to ‘embrace the idea of collection to connection – a space to bring people together'. The shape is a nod to the Taihu stones that Chinese scholars used for inspiration and meditation, and the exterior is clad with panels imprinted with photographs of marble swirls. The library holds a whopping 4.8 million books, as well as play spaces, outdoor reading rooms, and panoramic views of the city.

Tama Art University Library, Japan

A masterpiece by Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Toyo Ito, this library is made of concrete arches seemingly floating above the university campus. ‘A light and rhythmic space is achieved by placing arches with tapered footings continuously in different directions; but the interior space as a whole has a sense of tranquillity and transparency,’ says Ito.

Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, USA

The interior of Yale University's Beinecke Library features a six-storey, glass-enclosed tower of books, holding around 180,000 rare volumes. A Skidmore, Owings & Merrill project from 1963, the design is based on a grid of translucent Vermont marble panels that act as windows while protecting the precious collection from direct light. 'Design fans will want to check out the Florence Knoll and Marcel Breuer furniture, as well as the Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden,' says Teuscher.

Mariam's Library, Tanzania

'Built in only 34 days on a tight budget, Mariam’s Library shows that low-cost libraries can be as impactful as big landmark projects,' writes Teuscher of this Zanzibar library, part of Kuwait-based Parallel Studio's Parallel Gives – a volunteer-supported initiative dedicated to community service. Built from perforated bricks, the structure is conceived to stay cool and offer shade, while the corrugated roof filters the light above. '[The focus is] how to contribute to the global community, how architecture can positively affect human development, and how we can inspire our colleagues to spread such kindness,' says Parallel Studio founder, Mai Al Busairi.

Jeff Provan, founder and design director of Neometro, the Melbourne/Naarm-based developer, has an unusual – and amusingly Australian – way of describing his industry: 'All sausages sizzle, but they don't all taste the same at the end.' In other words, all developers build buildings, but there is a big difference in how enjoyable their homes are to live in. The metaphor is typical of the accessible way that Neometro’s directors, Provan (whose home, Mori House, was featured in Wallpaper* in 2024), James Tutton and Lochlan Sinclair, speak about their work and industry. It also hints at why their 40-year-old company sees itself differently from other developers.

An interview with Neometro

'I think developers get a bad reputation – often for very valid reasons,' says Tutton, who joined Neometro as a co-director in 2012. Lochlan Sinclair, Neometro’s third director, is equally wary: 'There have been some missteps by our industry which have resulted in buildings that the city will take years to heal from, they’re like scars.'

This shared scepticism likely stems from the team's unconventional backgrounds. None came from property development, finance, or real estate. Instead, they arrived via politics, philosophy, mental health work, and architecture. Tutton believes these backgrounds help them 'look at things through a different lens, probably a more design-orientated lens, a more cultural lens, a more community orientated lens.'

Learning from residents – a new book

Despite their scepticism of the development industry at large, they are firm advocates for the positive impact it can have when done well. At a time when housing crises are leading to denser cities across the world and the cost of living is increasingly meaning people are living in smaller spaces, it is encouraging to see developers who are rigorously asking questions about what it means to live well in smaller spaces.

Neometro’s new book City Living: Neometro Residents and Works (Uro, 2025) is a compelling read on this subject, and suggests that living densely doesn’t mean compromising or living to a lower standard. In fact, it suggests the opposite – that you can live well in an easy-to-maintain, well-designed, smaller home, surrounded by community.

Unlike most architecture books that show empty or sterile interiors, this one documents residents in homes full of personality. The images show bookshelves with probably a few too many books on them, caps hung from specially mounted railings above a sofa, pillows piled in cosy corners, and a white cat seeking attention in a green garden. It celebrates the stories and personalities of many of Neometro’s residents, some of whom have been living in their homes for decades.

Take Michael, an architect who has lived at Neometro’s Inkerman Street in St Kilda for 24 years. Or Amanda, an anthropologist, has lived in the converted Dow Street warehouse since 2015: 'We spend a lot of time in our home, and for me it's always been a real haven,' she says in the book.

'The book is an incredible testament to what we've done as well as the fact that we hang around long after the building's finished, getting lived experience from people who have been in our units for 15 years.' From these long relationships, Neometro learns how their spaces address needs over time, or where that could be improved.

The team treated the making of the book as an opportunity to glean more insights. 'It was an incredible piece of learning for us.' Another area of learning that has been invaluable to the company is that both Sinclair and Tutton live or have lived in Neometro buildings – one in a townhouse with a young family, the other in an apartment in a converted warehouse. 'Ultimately, Neometro exists to create apartments and townhouses which we would be happy living in,' says Tutton.

Designing for high density

Unusually for a developer, Neometro is very open with its learnings and design approaches – partly to build trust with potential buyers purchasing from a plan and partly in the hope that other developers will begin to implement them. As a result, in the past five years or so, the team have noticed 'a new breed of more design-oriented developers in Melbourne', says Tutton. Rather than seeing this as competition, they welcome the shift: 'We have had, and continue to have a really positive impact on the evolution of development and design in this city, and that's a really good thing,' Tutton says.

Of the many lessons Neometro’s team have gleaned from their work since 1985, they share three they've found to consistently improve liveability and differentiate what they contribute to the development industry.

Three lessons from Neometro's experience

Take design risks. While most developers replicate what has historically sold well before, Neometro is in a position where it can experiment. Tutton cites the double-height void volumes that are in a lot of Neometro’s more recent projects. 'Developers aren’t doing that at the moment, but we’ve had an amazing response.' They were also making mixed-use buildings which incorporated office, retail, hospitality and commercial spaces alongside homes in the 2000s, when it was much less popular to do so than today, and which helped transform entire neighbourhoods.

Go for architectural collaborations with attention to detail. Part of the reason that Neometro’s buildings are so well realised is their track record of collaborating with renowned architects, recently including Morq, Edition Office, and Kerstin Thompson Architects. Sinclair describes the process of working with architects as 'a bit like a game of tennis' – Neometro identifies and acquires sites, making the first serve, then a design evolves through a back-and-forth.

Tutton explains that Neometro brings their lived experience about seemingly small things – such as where a rubbish chute is positioned, or how a bike or pram can be navigated through a courtyard and entrance – to the table. 'Our job, to a certain extent, is to relay our learnings and intellectual property to the architects,' while they look at a bigger picture. Of the contributions of each team, he says, 'I think if buildings were a product of decisions made solely by developers, it would be an awful world. And, if buildings were the product of only the thinking of architects, it would not be as awful, but it would be a… challenging world.'

Build diverse communities. Finally, they understand that the design of a building directly impacts how communities form. 'Communities are richer when there is a broader spectrum of demographics rather than being just quasi-retirement villages or transitional housing for young adults,' says Tutton. As such, Neometro intentionally builds in varying sizes of apartments and townhouses, attracting different people with different lifestyles.

For instance, its 97 Alma Road project, which is currently selling before construction commences, includes 40 apartments and 20 townhouses. Designed in collaboration with Kerstin Thompson Architects and Myles Baldwin Design, it features one-, two- and three-bedroom units, three-bedroom townhouses, spaces with double-height ceilings, and ground-floor apartments with gardens.

'Probably one of the really fulfilling parts of what we do is that we’re building buildings, but we’re also building communities,' Sinclair concludes.

Craig Redman and Karl Maier, better known as Craig & Karl, have become known for their one-of-a-kind, pop-influenced illustrations, which over the years have expanded from two to three dimensions thanks to larger-than-life installations and takeovers of public spaces. Working collaboratively across London and New York, the duo are originally from Australia, and met as students at Brisbane's Griffith University.

This year, they were invited back to their home turf to stage a takeover of the city's landmarks for the Brisbane Festival, creating 75 artworks for 20 locations. The whole city seems invaded by colourful characters, playful 'mateys' peeking from car parks, roofs and alleyways, bringing Craig & Karl’s work to life for everyone to discover.

The biggest element of the citywide folly is also the pair's most ambitious project of their nearly 30-year career: a series of large inflatables hugging Brisbane's walking bridges.

To coincide with the public art trail is an exhibition at the Griffith University Art Museum titled ‘Craig & Karl: Rear Vision’, showcasing some of the pair's most memorable works.

We speak to the duo about their work and their experience of Brisbane.

Craig & Karl in Brisbane

Wallpaper*: You spent your formative years in Brisbane: what is the best memory of the city for you?

Craig & Karl: We met when we were 17 in our first semester at the Queensland College of Art. Moving to the city was exciting and expansive; there was a fertile mix of subcultures across music and the arts that inspired us a lot. It was a great place to begin our careers and creative partnership, and it continues to influence our work today.

W*: What should someone who has never been to Brisbane (like me!) know about the city?

C&K: It’s constantly evolving, and has changed so much since we lived there. It’s a very open and relaxed city, subtropical and very much about being outdoors. The food is incredible, with a huge Southeast Asian influence. And you should definitely check out the Gallery of Modern Art, which has a permanent James Turrell installation across its façade; it’s stunning.

W*: Your intervention is taking over the city in 20 locations: what has been the most memorable moment of working on this commission?

C&K: A standout has been realising an installation of inflatable arches across the Kangaroo Point Bridge, connecting the city to the Kangaroo Point headland, as part of this year’s Brisbane Festival. The river is such a defining feature of the city, and it’s a unique setting for a public intervention. The festival team have been amazing, and the artistic director, Louise Bezzina, was instrumental in facilitating something of this ambition.

W*: How much of the work is a spontaneous response, and how much is careful planning?

C&K: It’s a mix of both. When developing ideas, we try to be spontaneous and explore as many possibilities as we can. As we get into the details, more planning comes in. We’re often working on the fly and responding to external forces, so even when we think we know exactly what we’re doing, it can still feel improvised.

W*: At the same time, a retrospective of your work will give visitors a glimpse into your collaboration. What would you say have been the key moments, and why?

C&K: Looking back over our work has been an interesting process. We’ve been fortunate to expand the scope of what we do – from our beginnings in graphic design, through illustration, and now into public art and immersive installations. Each leap into the unknown challenges us and reveals what else we might be capable of. Prismatic, an installation in Hong Kong that completely reimagined an urban square, brought together the different strands of our practice at a new scale. The immersion of that project was a real joy for us to experience.

Brisbane Festival runs until 27 September 2025

An ice cream craving is always latent, waiting for its cue. In Britain, it's roused by the toy-like chime of vans drifting through suburban streets – fairgrounds on wheels, plastered with cartoon cones and sun-bleached decals. The visual identity is maximalist and celebratory, yet the product itself remains restrained: the archetypal 99, a neat swirl of soft-serve crowned with the simplicity of a Cadbury Flake. It's at once both impulsive, yet ritualised.

In contrast, Italy could not be more different. Gelato is a passeggiata companion, its flavours artisanal and refined: pistachio, nocciola, stracciatella, amarena. Counters stretch wide, vitrines gleam, and pozzetti lids conceal the craft beneath polished steel. Each portion is shaped with a flat paddle rather than scooped: a fleeting moment of theatre, as opposed to a mere transaction.

The context of ice cream has always been inseparable from the experience of eating it: a mirror of history and culture. In Turkey, dondurma is dense and elastic, sold from brass-trimmed carts where fez-wearing vendors tease customers in playful routines. In India, kulfi is pulled from conical moulds at vividly painted stalls. In Mexico, tiled paleterías brim with rainbow ices and fruit sorbets dusted with chilli or chamoy.

Each country has long held to its aesthetic codes. But in recent summers, a new wave of parlours has emerged. Here, architects and designers approach ice cream as stagecraft, creating experimental environments that are as sensorial and inventive as the flavours themselves.

The evolution of the ice cream parlour

In Odessa, Tanu (‘Таю’ is Ukrainian for ‘I’m melting’) reframes the ice cream shop as a space of grown-up composure. Sivak+Partners resisted the usual pastel kitsch, instead wrapping the interior in undulating stainless-steel panels that ebb and flow like frozen liquid. What might have felt sterile was softened through finish: ‘Thanks to its matte, worn texture, the metal ended up resembling velvet or fabric on the walls,’ says studio founder Dmytro Sivak.

‘There’s no loud, boisterous music or children’s birthday-party vibe,’ Sivak adds. ‘Rather, it offers a calm and pleasant weekend serenity.’ This is a parlour where ice cream is contextualised as an adult ritual, not a sugar rush.

In a similar vein, El Equipo Creativo aimed to create something more grown-up for the design of Barcelona’s Gelato Collection by Spanish chef Albert Adrià. ‘We wanted a space that offered more than just ice cream, where each flavour would be presented as a collectable jewel,’ shares Natali Canas Del Pozo, co-founder and creative director of the studio, which borrowed aesthetics from perfumeries and jewellery stores for the project. The centrepiece is undoubtedly a glass display case designed like a block of ice.

Walls are lined with champagne-toned porcelain tiles, a material choice that echoes the creaminess of gelato. Overhead, octagonal glass light fixtures emit a cool glow. The entire design slows consumption: you don’t grab and go, you approach the counter as though entering a gallery. Adrià’s numbered, ever-changing flavours – recent ones include ‘balsamic candy,’ ‘hibiscus margarita’ and ‘mango green curry’ – are almost treated like precious stones.

Nearby, Amiko Gelato (also in Barcelona) takes a more exuberant, lush and playful approach. Masquespacio pushed Miami Art Deco into the future with pastel geometries, sculptural seating and a shifting play of light. Tropical greenery floods the room, set against ceramics, microcement and metal, creating a deliberate clash between nature and industry. ‘Organic forms and sculptural elements, directly inspired by ice cream, are seamlessly integrated into both the furniture and décor,’ explains Borja Sánchez Marín, product designer at the studio. The effect is lushly immersive, a sensorial oasis rather than a pit stop, sitting at the intersection of juvenile and mature.

Similarly, at The Dreamery in London, ice cream is recast as part of a longer, more indulgent ritual, while ensuring an immersive element: you stay for a glass of wine, under a ceiling mural that dissolves into infinity. English artist Lucy Stein created a canopy of folkloric creatures painted on unryu rice paper, backlit and reflected by three mirrored walls. The result is an enveloping dreamscape that makes time feel suspended.

The material palette – cement-coloured tiles, stainless steel bar, vintage Brutalist sconces by Marino Poccetti – sets a restrained stage, allowing the ceiling to dominate. ‘We wanted somewhere comfortable and playfully innocent,’ co-founder Alex Young says, ‘a retreat of sorts from cynicism and seriousness.’ Traditional English sweetshops informed the design, but nostalgia is filtered through sophistication.

Elsewhere, designers are looking at the past to inform the future of the ice cream parlour, while tuning it into a creative adult ritual. Scooped by Demetres at Square One in Toronto plays with cinematic artifice. ‘We were inspired by the simple, pared-down sets of 1940s and ‘50s films like The Gang’s All Here and An American in Paris, which used design elements like half-height partitions and gestural, line-painted backdrops that disrupt the vastness of the studio sets and ask the audience to use their imagination,’ explains Kfir Gluzberg, founder and principal at Kilogram Studio.

Fluted glass clad with mirrored film refracts light and movement, while perforated steel panels, lacquered with a soft pink automotive finish, shimmer under changing light. This choreography is deliberate: with no colourful tubs on display, attention shifts to the reveal of the scoop itself. ‘The lack of one clear focal point and the monochromatic palette draw heightened focus on the moment the ice cream is revealed,’ the architect notes.

Meanwhile, Gelato Messina’s Sydney outposts show how retro language can be sharpened into a contemporary brand identity. The Newtown site – described by Sans-Arc Studio as ‘a bit retro, a bit 1970s, but also a bit shiny’ – works with a narrow footprint, squeezing circulation around the central freezer. The architects borrowed cues from diners and mid-century gelato bars: timber panelling, a black-and-white chequered floor, and compact counter lines.

In Redfern, the diner influence is pushed further: cork wall panels and spotted gum bullnose battens hug bright orange light boxes, giving a vivid postmodern pop to the brand’s pint-sized offering. The atmosphere is cheerful yet disciplined, part retro homage, part contemporary riff. For Sans-Arc, each Messina outpost is an opportunity to evolve the brand language across multiple sites: ‘developing it over several spaces, improving and becoming more unique with time.’ Here, the parlour becomes an iterative brand experiment rather than a one-off showcase.

The new ice cream parlour occupies a threshold: between child-coded nostalgia and adult sophistication, between memory and reinvention. Designers are not erasing the kitsch traditions of the past, but translating them into new forms: velveted steel, jewel-like vitrines, dreamscape ceilings. The result is a typology redefined by tension; playful yet serious, indulgent yet reflective. Ice cream becomes both an artefact and a stage, suspended between different life stages.

And in each, the ritual itself is re-engineered. Whether through conceal-and-reveal, immersive theatre or sensory overload, ice cream is no longer a snack, but architecture’s most playful act of indulgence.

Something compelling is taking shape in the offices of Emergent Studios, the Melbourne-based landscape architecture practice. Here, creative collaboration between landscape architects and digital innovators is revealing an unexpected truth: that the best landscapes are never really finished.

‘There's a lack of control that we welcome as designers,’ says Sarah Hicks, the studio's design director. This insight stems from emergence theory – the idea that complex systems end up being more than the sum of their parts – which also gives the studio its moniker. ‘We see the role of emergence as being intrinsic to landscape design,’ Hicks says, explaining that landscapes evolve over time through growth, succession, and the interactions of other species, far beyond their original design and construction.

Meet Australia's Emergent Studios

Emergent’s six-person practice, led by founding directors Matt Hamilton, Niki Schwabe, and Hicks, has spent over a decade perfecting what they call 'all hands-on deck’ collaboration. Their bijou scale enables something relatively rare in landscape architecture: director input across all projects, from social housing developments to health and education facilities.

Crucially, at the heart of this approach lies a sophisticated digital toolkit that transforms how landscapes are analysed and documented. ‘We are a paperless office, starting all design work from digital hand drawing,' Hicks explains, describing the organic process of moving from initial sketches on digital tablets to technical modelling and complete documentation through specialised software. This mix of intuitive hand-drawing and computational precision reflects Emergent’s broader philosophy: embracing both the art of landscaping and cutting-edge technology. At a more granular level, Hicks says the studio’s work is ‘driven by the potential role of landscape to shape ecological biodiversity and social value in the built environment.’

The most striking expression of this approach is the Munarra Centre for Regional Excellence in Shepparton, which opened last August as an education and sporting facility honouring First Nations culture. Working alongside ARM Architecture, the studio created a landscape and building shaped entirely through co-design with Yorta Yorta community members – the traditional owners of this part of Australia.

The Munarra project showcases Emergent’s commitment to what Hicks calls ‘regenerative conditions’ – both ecologically and socially. The landscape features biodiverse plantings of species nominated by Yorta Yorta Elders for their cultural significance: Murnong (Yam Daisy), Garawun (Mat-rush), and indigenous wildflowers that create learning landscapes to be harvested for community workshops.

Equally transformative was Emergent’s breakthrough project in late 2023. The narrm ngarrgu Rooftop Terrace atop Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market library is an elevated civic space that demonstrates the studio’s ability to create biodiverse urban ecosystems that serve multiple communities at once. The design includes a ceremonial sand circle, interactive water play, and artwork by First Nations artist Maree Clarke that transform functional elements into sculptural play spaces. The wurru wurra outdoor terrace connects the bubup wilam Children's Library with family services to create a secure yet welcoming environment where indigenous plants are visited by native birds, marsupials, and butterflies above the market's bustling activity below.

Looking ahead, Hicks and her partners are busy scaling their digital innovations with the upcoming release of DOCOplant, a comprehensive planting tool featuring an authentication system and online plant database, which will be accessible by the broader industry. Meanwhile, they're deep into an ecological restoration project transforming a southeastern cattle farm back to swampy woodlands, whilst investigating how agricultural landscapes can regenerate around centuries-old River Red Gums. ’We need to see a growth of public investment in landscape architecture and its stewardship to address future challenges within the built environment,’ Hicks argues.

In a time of climate urgency, this approach suggests that the future of landscape lies not in control, but in collaboration with communities, Country, and the wild intelligence that emerges when we create spaces where life is allowed to grow, well, naturally. Luckily for us, practices like Emergent Studios are showing us exactly just how that future might take root.

Just 2.5 km from Brisbane’s CBD, The Calile sits at the heart of Fortitude Valley’s James Street precinct, a stretch once overlooked but now pulsing with independent shops, galleries, and restaurants. Conceived as Australia’s first urban resort, the hotel adopts mid-century tropical references with a civic scale and climate-first agenda. Its design – layered white brick, breeze-block screening, and a raised pool podium –evokes Palm Springs, Miami, Rio and Mexico City, and recalibrates city-life around sunlight, shade, and leisure.

Wallpaper* checks in at The Calile Hotel, Brisbane

What’s on your doorstep?

Step outside and James Street is buzzing with local boutiques like MJS Jewellery and Calexico, alongside galleries, cafés and a clutch of restaurants and bars from SK Steak to Bianca, the latter serving simple Italian classics such as pork cotoletta and beef ragù.

Who’s behind the design?

Brisbane-based Richards & Spence embedded tropical logic into every façade choice, from breeze blocks to custom fans, creating a ‘quietly brutal aesthetic with humour and charm’. Interiors layer pastels and cork, brass and concrete, balancing crisp architecture with warm materials, while the landscape is by Lat27 + Botanical Grace, planting palm canopies into the raised pool deck to blur architecture and greenery.

The room to book

The Calile Suite is where spatial storytelling meets comfort, its corner spot offering dual balconies, a separate lounge, a generous bedroom, and bathrooms framed in travertine and cork for acoustic softness. But for design purists, the Poolside Deluxe rooms are the sweet spot, built around the pool, with spruce‑green joinery, brass fittings, and pastel‑lined bathrooms that nod to late‑1960s resort glamour.

Where to switch off

The pool is a defining image of The Calile, 30 metres of water flanked by pastel cabanas, breeze blocks and striped umbrellas. But while photogenic, it can buzz with activity during Brisbane’s long summer season, so for something quieter, The Spa at The Calile offers a more grounded escape. Designed in tonal stone and soft neutrals, it includes seven treatment rooms, a private wellness suite, a steam room, and a custom menu of rituals rooted in botanicals and bodywork. Treatments run from lymphatic drainage and skin therapies to infrared sessions and full-body scrubs using native Australian ingredients.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

James Street is now one of Brisbane’s most compelling dining precincts, and The Calile places you right at the heart of it. Alongside neighbourhood standouts like Bianca and SK Steak & Oyster, with its old-school glamour and dry martinis, there’s also Same Same. Located in Ada Lane, the restaurant serves a menu of elevated Thai Street food such as the Moreton Bay bug curry and house-made roti within polished interiors.

Within the hotel, The Lobby Bar and Hellenika both open from breakfast, the former a prime spot to sit with a coffee and watch the precinct come to life. Hellenika, located next to the pool, shifts gears throughout the day from Greek breakfast spreads to long lunches built around crowd-pleasers, like chargrilled calamari and moussaka. Come evening, the energy turns inward at Sushi Room. Tucked discreetly off the lobby, the recently refurbished space by Richards & Spence features curved booths, a 9.3-metre hinoki counter, and a moody palette that sets the stage for precision-led omakase alongside a menu of classics, from sushi and sashimi to tempura.

What’s the verdict?

With its crisp civic architecture, pastel‑washed interiors and precinct‑spanning dining experience, The Calile Hotel offers resort leisure in a city context, layering tropical references with urban precision. More than just a place to stay, The Calile has become a defining presence in Brisbane, anchoring the evolution of James Street, attracting a loyal local following, and putting this understated city on the map.

The Calile Hotel is located at 48 James St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006, Australia.

The Gold Coast has long delivered sun, surf and spectacle, but the arrival of Mondrian at Burleigh Heads signals something more deliberate. Set between the Norfolk pines and the Pacific, the property marks the brand’s Australian debut. A place to see and be seen, it is a magnet for the well-heeled and the design-aware, drawing a steady crowd to its restaurants and bars, where DJs play into the night. Behind the scenes, a line-up of collaborators have teamed up to create a layered sense of place that cements Burleigh’s emerging reputation as a cultural and culinary hub beyond the surf.

Wallpaper* checks in at Mondrian Gold Coast, Burleigh Heads

What’s on your doorstep?

The hotel sits directly on Burleigh’s tree-lined esplanade, across from the beach and its famously good surf. Relaxed and local, it’s the Gold Coast’s sweet spot, where smoothie bars, boutiques and nearby Burleigh Pavilion are a few steps away. Head up the hill for walking trails with cinematic views, or go for a long, lazy lunch at Rick Shores, an effortlessly cool favourite that serves up Southeast Asian flavours like the must-have bug rolls (containing lobster-like crustaceans, not insects), against the sun-dappled ocean backdrop.

Who is behind the design?

Mondrian’s rippling twin towers, inspired by Burleigh’s headland and sand dunes, is the work of Melbourne-based architecture firm Fraser & Partners, which has set the tone for fresh, design-savvy interiors. For the guestrooms, LA-based Studio Carter has channelled the Australian landscape with a refined and tactile design in terracotta and ochre tones which, according to its founder Robbyn Carter, ‘reflect Burleigh’s rhythm – its rocks, pines, sunsets and coastline’.

Elsewhere, Sydney’s Alexander &CO was tapped for the restaurants and bars. On the ground floor, LiTO unfolds over a vast open space with concrete dendriform columns and custom terrazzo, which has been softened by rattan and timber textures in earthy shades. On the third floor, Haven, alongside the Pool Club, effortlessly reflects the Gold Coast’s sun-drenched vibes, again with earthy hues, highlighted with sage-green tones, as well as warm timber, handmade tiles and custom lighting.

The room to book

The Three Bedroom Ocean Home is the hotel’s crown jewel, a sprawling space with a full kitchen, and a private balcony that opens up to sweeping Pacific views. But the room to book is one of the corner Studios; compact, yet spacious, sunlight streams in from all sides, highlighting the terracotta tones as well as the sizable bathroom with its curved travertine vanity and custom mirrors.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Start at LiTO, the curbside restaurant, which offers an all-day Italian menu that seamlessly transitions from morning espressos to late-night negronis. Lunch is a light-filled and buzzy affair, the fresh ocean breeze flowing through the folding glass doors to the open kitchen, which sends out favourites like the lamb ragu, whole octopus or crispy frito misto.

From there, head to the third floor to catch the afternoon sun at Haven Pool Club, which offers colourful cocktails and a small selection of bites from Haven. Here, the focus is on seafood, with chilled seafood platters, oysters and plates like the snapper croquettes or the delicious prawn cocktail; in other words, beach club vibes against the beats of a roster of international DJs.

Where to switch off

While the Pool Club does have a couple of magnesium plunge pools, the best place to wind down is in Ciel. A sanctuary on the second floor, the spa’s soft textures and curved stone detailing set the tone for a menu of holistic bio-wellness treatments from cryotherapy dry floats to the healing Himalayan salt room that is the perfect recharge after a day spent drinking cocktails in the sun.

The verdict

With its considered architecture, tactile interiors and a strong sense of place, Mondrian Gold Coast brings a new level of precision to Australia’s coastal hotel scene and is a clear marker of where Burleigh is heading.

Mondrian Gold Coast is located 3 First Ave, Burleigh Heads QLD 4220, Australia.

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth is back and looking better than ever. First opened in 1966 as Australia’s original international five-star hotel, the heritage-listed building has long been one of the city’s most recognisable addresses, hosting a kaleidoscope of dignitaries, royalty and VIPs from Princess Diana to Bill Gates. Now, following an AUD $70 million overhaul led by Australia-based multi-disciplinary design practice FK, it’s been given a sophisticated refresh that reimagines this modernist landmark while firmly bringing it into the 21st century.

Best known for projects like MONA in Hobart and Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka 118, FK followed the brief to honour the spirit of the original hotel while reframing it for a new generation, approaching the project with a focus on heritage and spatial flow, using warmth, texture and local craftsmanship.

Tour the reimagined Sofitel Sydney Wentworth

The building’s listed curved façade remains intact, but inside the mood has been distinctly elevated. The lobby has been reconfigured into a warm, layered arrival space, with pockets for quiet conversation and a sculptural ceiling installation of 400 hand-mounted lights. Designed by Shaun Dudley, the piece is a subtle nod to Sofitel’s French heritage and the tradition of guests being guided to their rooms by candlelight.

Capturing FK’s design nouse, Tilda – the ground-floor seafood grill – sits within the lobby, but has been smartly configured so that it feels discreet and self-contained. The palette draws from the Australian landscape – ochres, clay tones, natural linens with hints of sea blue – while the furniture and fittings celebrate local makers, including Jardan furniture and ceramic lighting by Sarah Nedovic. Following suit, the food features dishes such as Fraser Island spanner crab ravioli in roast potato dashi; WA king prawns with curry leaf and black lime sorrel butter; and a sharp edit of local wines.

Next door, the curbside Bar Tilda channels a more sultry mood, with burgundy tones, wooden Venetian blinds and dramatic drapery that adapts with the time of day-light and is textured by morning, intimate and atmospheric by night. Alongside a 100-strong Australian whisky library housed in a handsome armoire, the drinks menu features the likes of Lost At Sea, a tribute to former prime minister Harold Holt, who disappeared at a Victorian beach in 1967, that blends botanical vodka, tea tree, orange, lemon salt, and green apple.

On level five, Delta Rue’s colonial nostalgia sets the scene for a menu of French-Vietnamese plates – from Banh khot with rare-breed pork to Hanoi-style pork neck skewers – layering rattan chairs, reclaimed teak, leafy greens and custom wallpaper by Kerrie Brown. Outside, the terrace – a previously underutilised space – is now home to the Wentworth Bar, a lively alfresco space beneath a glass-and-copper canopy, dotted with terrazzo tables and potted greenery.

Upstairs, the bathrooms remain untouched, but new carpets, joinery, soft finishes and – most importantly – muted lighting across all 436 rooms and corridors bring cohesion to the overall experience. The materials, like the public areas, are calm, tactile and quietly luxe, giving the spaces a stronger sense of refinement.

An overhaul that marks a pivotal reset for Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, FK’s approach has been smart, grounding the hotel in a strong sense of narrative that elevates its identity and restores it as a true city icon.

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth is located at 101 Phillip St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia.

The Republic Tower, designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects, was one of the first high-rise apartment buildings that celebrated city living in Melbourne in the early noughties. Its ship-like form with a distinctive wedge-shaped wing still slows traffic. Completed in 1999, the Republic is now surrounded by many other towers. Yet its appeal remains strong, and one of its homes was recently reworked by Multiplicity, who respected the history of the original design but created a more contemporary environment over 25 years from its inauguration.

Take a tour of this refreshed Republic Tower apartment

Renovated for a retired couple who had spent a number of years living overseas, the brief given to Multiplicity addressed both the way the couple live, and importantly, the encroaching towers. '[The clients] Helen and George weren’t sure if they could face any more development around them, but they love the location, just a stone’s throw from the Queen Victoria Market,' says interior designer Sioux Clark, a director of Multiplicity, who worked closely with architect Tim O’Sullivan, co-director of the practice, and graduate architect Jesse Osadczuk.

With reduced views and, to a certain degree, natural light, caused by new developments, Multiplicity fully gutted the 120 square-metre apartment and inserted a curvaceous spine-like wall. Clad in a reflective aluminium, views beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows become abstracted and the natural light considerably more generous. 'That insertion certainly animated the spaces as well as loosely dividing the kitchen and living areas from the bedrooms (now two instead of three),' says O’Sullivan, who was mindful of not having to completely rearrange all the plumbing and services.

While the original galley-style kitchen, with burl-veneer joinery, was functional, it certainly wasn’t ideal for a couple who enjoy cooking and entertaining friends. 'We wanted to extend the kitchen so it felt like it actually reaches out to you, whether you’re sitting in the living area or around the dining table,' says O’Sullivan. In contrast, the main bedroom and ensuite are private and cocoon-like. Multiplicity retained two curved bathroom walls that were formerly en-suites for two bedrooms, but added their distinctive signature – acrylic panels and reflective materials. A sense of transparency was also created for the wardrobes in the main bedroom. Featuring clear acrylic doors, these wardrobes add depth and texture. 'Helen has a wonderful collection of clothing, so why hide these behind opaque solid doors?' says Clark.

Instead of three bedrooms, there are now two – the main bedroom and a secondary, smaller bedroom suite with an adjacent study nook. The second bedroom can be used for guests or for watching television without disturbing others. And for further insulation and acoustic separation, Multiplicity lined the ceilings in Woodwool, a natural material that is akin to the Stramit ceilings used in the 1950s and ‘60s. While there are still a few elements from the late 1990s, this apartment is now fit for 21st-century living, a comfortable home, thoughtfully tailored to its sophisticated urban owners.

A crisp, white house – a multigenerational home located on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, which encompasses what is now Sydney, Australia – offers a calm and secluded urban retreat. Mathieson Architects united two separate apartments and transformed them into a single, expansive residence, Bellevue Hill House, with cascading views across the Harbour Bridge and Rose Bay.

Inside Bellevue Hill, a crisp, white house in Sydney

‘As with many of our projects, the design for Bellevue Hill House began with a close reading of the existing conditions – both the built form and the site – and a conversation with the clients to better understand their requirements, both atmospheric and functional,’ says Phillip Mathieson, founder and design director.

‘From there, we focused on creating a home that felt calm, clear, and attuned to its elevated harbourside setting. The existing building had a fragmented architectural history, and rather than demolishing it, we retained key structural elements and reimagined the language of the house to create something contemporary and cohesive. The new form opens up to long views across Sydney while offering a series of private, inward-looking moments that support the ebb and flow of family life.’

After identifying the potential to combine two dwellings into a large three-level residence, the architecture studio had to focus on protecting the residents' privacy – an important element given the home's positioning, sandwiched on three sides by neighbouring properties. To accommodate this, Mathieson used a series of angled aluminium blades to curate sightlines, while maintaining the residence’s appealing retreat-like feel.

However, the biggest challenge was unifying the disparate elements of the original building into a cohesive whole. ‘The front façade featured remnants of a Spanish Mission style, while the rear and side elevations had been heavily altered over time. Our aim was to simplify and clarify – removing incongruous features and introducing a consistent architectural rhythm through horizontal banding, steel screening, and white rendered blade walls,’ Mathieson explains.

The home's interior has been designed for easy practicality. The ground floor acts as the main living area, featuring a chef’s kitchen at its core. Pivot doors that open up or partition off the space allow for privacy for formal entertaining or an open, connected setting for everyday living. Dining and lounge spaces take up the full width of the home.

Outside, the residence’s pool has been relined with turquoise mosaic tiles and is sheltered from the sun by an elegant Japanese maple tree, inspired by the client’s travels in Japan.

Upstairs, there is the comprehensively equipped primary suite. ‘The primary suite holds something special: it’s completely integrated – bedroom, ensuite, dressing, sauna and steam room – yet never feels closed in. It opens onto a private terrace and exemplifies the kind of seamless, flexible living the clients were looking for,’ says Mathieson.

On this level, there are additional rooms and lounges for the growing family and guests. On the rooftop is another pool, which offers impressive, long views of the cityscape and bay area.

A minimalist material palette was used throughout the home, with an emphasis on white tones and varying textures, from terrazzo floors to blackened timber veneers. This helped create a sense of cohesion for those who enter the space, as Mathieson describes: ‘The home was designed to feel both generous and grounded – spaces flow easily from one to the next, but there’s always a clear architectural framework anchoring the experience.'

'Light and materiality play a key role in shaping the atmosphere: soft plastered walls, white terrazzo flooring, and linen curtains create a sense of ease and tactility, while darker accents in stone and timber add depth. Even though the house spans four levels, it never feels overwhelming. Our goal was for it to feel calm, purposeful, and deeply livable from the moment you step inside. ‘

For Mathieson, this is truly encapsulated in the rooftop level, which stands out not only for its views but also in the way it shifts the mood of the house. ‘It’s a space for retreat and gathering, anchored by a lap pool, lounge and terrace that look out across Bellevue Hill towards the city and harbour,’ he adds. ‘It feels removed from the pace of daily life, yet it’s an integral part of the home.’

mathiesonarchitects.com

A warehouse complex in suburban Queensland has been elegantly transformed from a neglected industrial estate to a design-led and crisp, vibrant community hub. The project, aptly titled The Warehouses, is the brainchild of local architect Jared Webb and his studio J.AR Office. The team tackled the redesign of the flood-prone, existing space, once used as a flood rescue hub, into a multi-purpose structure to house a variety of uses within its subtly-nostalgic, revamped bones.

Discover this unexpected Queensland warehouse transformation

The architects worked with the existing light industrial building's fabric to create a little 'village' of functions and businesses within the open plan, pared-down shell. The work was guided by consultations with their client, and the question: 'How can a commercial building adapt to evolving community needs?'

While keeping the structure's utilitarian aesthetic and operating with a sense of nostalgia for the building's past life, the architecture team produced a space that feels tactile and at the same time fresh and crisp. A neutral-tone colour palette and a minimalist material selection create a space that feels serene – an atmosphere supported by the lush planting inside the complex's green inner courtyards, and the absence of 'superfluous adornment and conspicuous graphics.'

'The Warehouses address a typology often on the periphery of architectural consideration; it ultimately demonstrates the importance of providing space for public life to occur, even in the most unlikely of places – a shed,' the architects explain in their statement.

They continue, on the subject of the project's textured materiality: 'While sharing the materials of its neighbours, The Warehouses whisper where others shout, resisting superfluous adornment and conspicuous graphics; instead, zincalume cladding is celebrated unapologetically, its raw finish embracing the patina of time. Stylistic flourishes relied on a simple 80-metre-long stepped shiplap facade treatment, the sheeting staggered vertically across each tier to provide the expansive façade a visual rhythm to those passing by. Spandek in raw zincalume continues over and around deep-ply window boxes and custom flashings offering a striking composition, that reads as a unified steel mass.'

Shared areas and amenities were designed to draw users together, fostering interaction and a social life. Meanwhile, the carefully curated, robust materials and Native planting scheme ensure this warehouse redesign feels at home in its surrounding environment, and is here to stay.

In a metropolis of spectacular dining, Australia’s most celebrated chef has reopened his three-hatted restaurant (the equivalent of a Michelin star), now in an expanded version complete with boutique accommodation to match. From dinner to breakfast, guests can experience the full extent of chef Josh Niland and his wife Julie’s vision, where their passion for seafood at their modern Australian restaurant goes hand-in-hand with their ethos of traceability and no-waste in whole-fish cooking.

The well-situated, yet quieter location, that being a heritage-listed former pub The Grand National Hotel in Sydney’s Paddington, suits the destination, where fine dining and luxury accommodation combine for an immersive, unforgettable stay.

Wallpaper* checks in at The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter

Who is behind the design?

Sydney-based interior design firm Studio Aquilo – directed by Belinda Chippendale and Dimity Chitty – worked with the Nilands to create the right design to bring their concept full circle. ‘This building has been around since 1980 and although we didn’t necessarily want to lose its Victorian / Paddington terrace feeling, we wanted to bring it up to date,’ explains Josh Niland. ‘Studio Aquilo brought a really sharp eye when it came to textures and layering. They did the dining room and bar as well as the rooms, allowing the overall design to feel complimentary of its history but different at the same time.’

Australian tones of Eucalyptus and earthy browns are found throughout the building, purposefully natural and quietly refined. Studio Aquilo also worked with local artisans on design features. In the main dining room, a handmade skeletal fish-bone aged brass pendant light by Lost Profile is hard not to admire, while a JN Custom Metal-made bespoke vessel shaped like an oyster shell chills wines and champagne. The open kitchen sees hanging dried seaweed, while custom-rendered walls and ribbed tiling represent the ocean and fish scales. For the tableware, artisans Claudia Lau and Sam Gordon were enlisted on custom designs for both plates and cups, using discarded fish bones in their clays.

The room to book

With seven rooms on each floor, each is slightly different in the heritage build, but they all come with unique selling points from top-floor city vistas to slightly larger room footprints. There are also perks for every guest: priority booking at the fine dining restaurant, along with an exclusive experience that can be discovered at night when looking down onto the Saint Peter kitchen through the glass ceiling.

Find king-size beds and footed bathtubs amongst brass, marble and stone detailing and illustrated wallpaper from luxury brands such as Catherine Martin, Cole & Son and Fornasetti. Art pieces are curated by Tim Olsen of Sydney-based Olsen Gallery, including artworks by Byron Bay artist Michael Cusack and the legendary Ken Done, both in the hotel and dining areas. Every part of the detailing in rooms has been selected by the Nilands, such as the all-inclusive mini-bar, Aesop amenities and fish-fat soap made in collaboration with The Soapstress using waste from the restaurant.

Welcome snacks include treats such as a Yellowfin Tuna fermented rice cake with N25 Kaluga Caviar (an Australia-wide exclusive to Saint Peter currently) or Passionfruit Marigold and Lemon Myrtle Soda, an inventive concoction by Sam Cocks, the Saint Peter bar manager. At turn-down, guests receive handmade chocolates on the bed along with a personalised, signed note from Josh Niland.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

A seat at Saint Peter’s table has long been the hottest ticket in town, with pioneering chef Josh Niland creating a one-of-a-kind experience revered by Australian and global chefs alike. Their new home includes a dining room for 40 guests, a bar for 30 and a private dining room for 15.

Niland’s sustainable, fin-to-scale and whole-fish philosophy has influenced how many now consume and serve fish, with his trail-blazing approach presented in his artistry. From Australia’s best oysters in the restaurant’s nine-course tasting menu to a yellowfin tuna cheeseburger in their ala carte dining at the bar, both fine dining and casual are welcomed here at Saint Peter at The Grand National Hotel.

Breakfast of champions?

Available exclusively to guests, the hotel breakfast is a spectacular event: a three-course breakfast menu, cooked especially by the Saint Peter team and served either by Niland personally or head chef Joe Greenwood.

It all tastes as sensational as it looks, but it's the marron scrambled eggs dish which delights the most. The Australian freshwater crayfish has every edible part of its torso presented on the plate, along with its head filled with rich hollandaise – all served on a bed of foie sourdough toast and scrambled eggs. Seasonal fruit plates are presented with marigold flowers and goji berries freeze-dried with liquid nitrogen to create dramatic smoke effects for extra theatrics. It’s a breakfast that guests will be talking about for months.

The verdict

Independently run, the Nilands keep developing their offering to make it even better – it is also their personalised approach at Saint Peter that makes every guest feel welcome and proud to support their mission. Josh Niland’s whole-fish cooking has been instrumental to sustainable consumption and transparent sourcing, translated into the extraordinary dishes guests from around the world travel to Saint Peter for. Now, they can experience the full extent of the Niland’s vision, from check-in to check-out.

The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter is located at 161 Underwood St, Paddington NSW 2021, Australia; saintpeter.com.au

Set in the bush on Bruny Island, off the south-west coast of Tasmania and accessible only by ferry, Danish design label Vipp’s latest bookable guesthouse, Tunnel (joining properties including the Vipp Salaca River in Latvia, and Vipp Todos Santos in Mexico, for example), balances beauty, brutalism and seclusion.

Tour Vipp Tunnel, Tasmania

The origin of the house’s name is quite apparent. Vipp Tunnel features a linear layout of rooms crafted from concrete panels, including one bedroom and a bathroom, an open central courtyard, a kitchen, a sunken living area, and a covered patio.

As you open each of the hefty steel doors, stretching from the front to the back of the building, a tunnel view of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel appears.

As the sun sets, its rays strike the glass ceiling, casting a vibrant shard of amber light across the living room eaves. This tunnel-shaped skylight, made of orange, purple, and green glass, was designed at precise angles to create a constantly evolving chromatic show.

‘It’s like natural mood lighting,’ says Josh Mayne, one of the architects from Hobart firm Room 11 who worked on the project. ‘Throughout the day, when the sun passes over, it picks up the different panes of glass and brings out the different colours.’

Owner Dane Taylor bought the unoccupied land – known as a ‘bush block’ in Australia – sight unseen in 2021. He liked Room 11’s visual style and had begun the design process with them when the architects received a call from the Danish design company Vipp, which was looking to add a southern hemisphere property to its collection of guesthouses in unique environments. Thankfully, the visions of all three parties gelled and, after three years of design and building, Vipp Tunnel welcomed its first visitors in March 2025.

Polished concrete and glass are the principal materials used throughout. Underfloor heating keeps the spaces warm during Tasmania’s cool winters while opening the series of doors in summer invites cooling breezes inside.

The house is self-sufficient. The western façade is completely covered by a black solar array, while the concrete provides thermal insulation. Rainwater is collected for use around the property. Before the building designs were approved by the local council, every tree on the site was surveyed to avoid any damage.

As well as the main building, there is what has been dubbed ‘the studio’ about 200m away. It is one of Mayne’s favourite pieces in this architectural puzzle. ‘I think a lot of people overlook it,’ he says. ‘You’ve got a tunnel in the accommodation then, off to the side, there’s this grand studio. It’s open to interpretation what you can do with it – it’s almost like an adult’s playroom.’

Within the studio is a fitted desk, a chair – like all the furniture and fittings within the house, it is from Vipp’s collection – a loft with a mattress and a bathroom. ‘Where the Tunnel is more refined in its view, the studio is quite the opposite, with massive sheets of glass that open up a completely different aspect of the site,’ continues Mayne. ‘The juxtaposition of the two is a strong point of the overall design.’

Bruny is known for its pristine beaches, wild nature and cheese and oysters. A car is required to access them, or you can spend your days revelling in the setting. In the morning, take a coffee to the yoga platform and watch seals patrolling the shoreline. Later in the day, fill the outdoor bath and soak beneath the eucalypts while shy wallabies nibble at green shoots. At nighttime, in the courtyard, accompanied by Lin Utzon’s Cosmic Dance sculptures and a single birch tree, look up – the sky as wild as the surrounding landscape.

vipp.com

A new addition on the cusp of Sydney’s Central Business District, The Eve Hotel Sydney is a brick and biophilic low-rise that showcases Australian art and design while celebrating its history and locale. Part of the TFE Hotels group, this new opening strives to be ‘a playground for the curious and creative’.

Wallpaper* checks in a The Eve Hotel Sydney

What’s on your doorstep?

With its lush canopy of oak trees, Baptist Street is a picture of tranquillity. However, it wasn’t too long ago that this area, along with the surrounding suburb of Redfern, could best be described as ‘sketchy’. As gentrification crept in, a run-down mall made way for the Wunderlich Lane commercial and residential development. A decade later, this once gritty patch of Sydney is now the city’s newest hospitality and retail darling.

Who is behind the design?

Adam Haddow, director of local firm SJB, the hotel’s principal architects, collaborated with landscape architect Daniel Baffsky and interior designer George Livissianis to bring the project to life. ‘The street-level entrance is deliberately immediate – there is no buffer. Guests step straight from the raw energy of the city into an experience heightened by contrast,’ says Haddow.

A vaulted Barrisol ceiling is emblazoned with a luminous abstract digital mural by artist Louise Olsen, co-founder of homeware and jewellery studio Dinosaur Designs. The reds and browns of Australian hardwoods, such as jarrah and ironbark, add tonal warmth to the floors, pillars and walls, which are adorned with eye-catching artworks by the likes of Richard Killeen, Robert Henry Dickerson and Angelo Savelli.

Contrast comes again in the cool, white lobby, its natural stone flooring and rendered walls softened by flashes of colourful upholstered furniture, the curve of a pair of mottled blue faience reception desks and sightlines to a garden courtyard. The lobby is restrained and meditative, acting as an architectural palate cleanser before guests continue along a cloistered corridor to the guest rooms. ‘The passageway serves as both a physical and psychological threshold, offering a moment of pause to engage with the courtyard’s landscape and subtly reorient oneself within the city,’ says Haddow.

The room to book

The 102 rooms and suites are dressed in the hues of the Aussie bush, from the shower stalls and bathrobes to the headboards and banquettes. All have balconies or terraces, which overlook rows of shingle and tin roofs and swathes of greenery. Haddow suggests taking time to admire the outlook, when ‘the city dissolves into a landscape that feels almost like the bush – a rare moment of retreat within the urban fabric’. In-room amenities, including glassware and olive oil-based bath and body products, are provided by lifestyle brand Saardé, whose first retail outlet is located on site.

Where to switch off

The hotel pool – on the rooftop – with its Sukabumi tiles and underwater speakers, is one of the hottest in town, while burnt orange sunloungers, umbrellas and cabanas add a retro LA vibe. It’s the garden, however, that steals the show. ‘It’s an eclectic mix of native and exotic flora, including edible species such as lilly pilly, feijoa and lemon myrtle,’ says Baffsky. ‘The landscape is sometimes tidy and refined, sometimes wild, resilient and a bit rough and ready, a mix that reflects the vibrant characteristics of the neighbourhood.’

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Dining and drinking options abound at Wunderlich Lane. Sharing the rooftop space is contemporary Mexican restaurant and mezcaleria Lottie, which offers a wraparound terrace and sublime sunset views. Also on site are Regina La Pizzeria, high-end Japanese diner R by Raita Noda, and Island Radio, a Southeast Asian noodle bar (with a resident DJ), the last housed within a heritage-listed former bank building alongside Baptist Street Rec Club, a cocktail bar that channels the flamboyance of 1980s Sydney. Then there’s Olympus Dining, a circular 200-seater Greek arena that’s proving very popular with the city’s hipster gourmands. In the centre sits a 50-year-old bougainvillaea tree beneath a retractable glass-domed roof, which shelters diners from, or exposes them to, the elements as they tuck into taramasalata, dolmades, grilled octopus and roasted milk-fed lamb.

The verdict

It’s a far cry from Redfern’s murky past, but Haddow believes The Eve Hotel Sydney ‘speaks to its surroundings with clarity, authenticity and a profound sense of belonging’, bringing a welcome new lease of life to this colourful neighbourhood.

The Eve Hotel Sydney is located at 8 Baptist St, Redfern NSW 2016, Australia; theevehotel.com.au

A version of this article appears in the May 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from 3 April, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

'About Time', an elegant bathhouse in Torquay, Victoria, is the Australian Surf Coast's new temple for wellness, courtesy of Studio Goss. Designed by the practice, headed by founder David Goss – also behind this finely tuned, countryside Cape Schanck house – the complex balances brutalist architecture and gentle natural patina, inspired by the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi.

Relax at the 'About Time' bathhouse by David Goss

The bathhouse was designed by the Melbourne-based practice as an ultimate immersive wellness experience. Bringing together confidence and softness, the design works with a robust material palette of concrete, stone and timber, sprinkled with 'the beauty of imperfection.'

Careful lighting throughout highlights the textured surfaces, crafted in flamed granite floors, curved stucco walls, coir matting and monolithic timber and stone elements. Clean lines and geometric shapes echo Goss's architectural approach through his residential work – such as Cape Schanck's sophisticated volumes.

A generous garden allows for al fresco dips in the water, while inside, interconnected, flowing areas feature a series of magnesium pools, saunas, steam rooms, and enclosed treatment spaces where guests can enjoy facials or massage. The campus spans some 1,000 sq m of what used to be the former headquarters of the Quiksilver clothing and accessories brand in Torquay

Balancing the crisp shapes of the overall architecture, gentle lighting and curved features in the interiors bring an element of lightness and tranquillity to the composition – this is supported by strategically hidden sconces, and expressive taps and bathroom accessories throughout.

Treatments and products are provided respectively by facial specialist Little Company (Byron Bay and Collingwood) and holistic massage practice Still Beauty.

studiogoss.com.au

‘Brique de verre’, aka the humble glass block, first patented in 1886 and a regular feature of art deco buildings, may have had a starring role in the iconic 1932 Maison de Verre in Paris, yet it has slightly lost its lustre with residential clients in recent years.

Of course, architects have never stopped loving them, from Renzo Piano, whose 2001 Maison Hermès in Tokyo features over 13,000 bespoke glass blocks, to MVRDV, who in 2016 used glass to replace the original bricks on Chanel’s flagship store in Amsterdam.

Celebrating the glass block with this Melbourne building

The blocks are not just aesthetically pleasing but have many excellent properties, including high strength and durability, light diffusion, soundproofing and fire resistance. And all these qualities made them absolutely perfect for Splinter Society’s latest project, Newburgh Light House in Melbourne’s Auburn Village.

The ten-storey apartment block is located on a particularly tricky 50 sq m site, which the Melbourne-based studio, led by Asha Nicholas and Chris Stan­ley, describes as ‘almost un-buildable’. And it’s no exaggeration: the plot sits right right next to a historic train station, with only a pedestrian path separating it from the VicTrack trainlines.

Despite the challenging site, Splinter Society has created a highly sustainable housing solution, using glass blocks as a key material to meet the stringent fire, acoustic and light requirements, and prefabricated elements to address the construction constraints.

Both north and south façades use glass blocks and recessed glazing to maximise the light and views, while other surfaces are clad in metal panels with intricate detailing. ‘The translucent facades, combined with reflective finishes throughout, form a lantern to the public realm,’ explain the architects.

Built out of concrete to withstand a train derailment, the ground level is home to a small coffee shop opening onto the public pathway, with bluestone cobbles forming a pixelated pattern to allow ground-floor permeability. At the back the architects have even managed to squeeze in a garage, using a car stacker.

Each full-level residence is accessed directly through the lift or stairs, meaning no space is wasted on hallways or corridors. Most are two-bedroom apartments, but there is also a duplex, as well as bespoke top-floor penthouse. All are designed to be adaptable, and to appeal to both young families and individuals sharing a flat.

Inside, the grid theme continues in the shape of timber panelling, natural stone and ceramic tiles. ‘The glass blocks present a unique internal finish that creates a brilliant changing light effect through the day,’ say the architects. ‘Permeability of light through the floor plate is achieved with textured glass doors and internal walls.’

Known for its distinctly tactile projects that focus on func­tion­al­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal sustainability, Splinter Society has also designed the Hawthorn Gable House, a family house in a prized her­itage estate, and a masterplan for Metung Hot Springs, a venue set by a lagoon in the Banksia Forest.

splintersociety.com

Located in the rolling hills of Byron Bay’s hinterland, in Australia’s New South Wales, Lo Scoglio is a newly opened luxury vacation rental waiting to be discovered. Checking into this Italian-style farmhouse – with swathes of charm and established with wellness and long-term sustainability in mind – reveals the ‘new luxury’, where all-natural materials and low-toxicity finishes are a priority. Founded by regenerative farming advocates Angelica and Charlie Arnott, the farmhouse and studio present a modern take on legacy – one built to last.

Wallpaper* checks in at: Lo Scoglio, Byron Bay

What’s on your doorstep?

Lo Scoglio resides atop a hill in the prestigious Coopers Shoot enclave, on a two-acre private estate and 20 minutes from the favoured beaches of Byron Bay. Native flora sits among well-landscaped gardens at each property in the area, with Lo Scoglio a discreet addition.

Nearby towns including Byron Bay and Bangalow boast fashionable local restaurants, cafés and organic shops. But in line with the Italian-style ethos of Lo Scoglio, and facilitating those who want to cook and dine with friends indoors or al fresco at the property, there is an all-Italian, organic-staples care package for all guests checking into the farmhouse – fresh herbs and Italian wine included.

Who is behind the design?

The farmhouse is the first official project by the Arnotts, partners in life and work. From the get-go, they worked with local artisans and companies, such as builders Skyline Projects, to complete the project, creating an authentic ode to traditional Italian stone farmhouses. Two-hundred-year-old reclaimed timber was sourced locally for the ceilings, floors and cabinetry. By using all-natural materials, the goal of the Arnotts was to have low toxicity in the house, including no EMF (electric and magnetic forces) exposure where guests sleep – that means no TV. There are also no chemical fertilisers in the garden, with landscaping kept native or Mediterranean-influenced to coexist with the surrounding environment.

As for custom detailing, the forged iron around the property was made by local artisans Eastern Forge, while Byron-based The Land Company completed the landscaping. Byron Bay interior store Tigmi Trading delved into Angelica’s Sicilian heritage to source authentic Italian furniture and ceramics straight from Italy, in addition to a selection of furniture from their own flagship.

A generous kitchen with stone walls and marble countertops sits at the heart of the villa, where guests will find hand-painted and handcrafted Di Lunedi x Lo Scoglio ceramic bowls. ‘There are many elements in the house that create a sense of story, place and time, but it’s the kitchen that brings everyone together; it’s a space big enough to share cooking and conversation with an entire family of friends and relatives. Lo Scoglio is an all-or-nothing experience, depending on what you desire,’ says Angelica Arnott.

The room to sleep in

In total, Lo Scoglio sleeps 12 – the property is comprised of a four-bedroom farmhouse and a one-bedroom studio – and is able to accommodate 35 for events. With stunning vistas from the balcony and ensuite bathroom, the Visconte Suite is the one to stay in. Terracotta tiles lie beneath a freestanding, round-footed bathtub. There are no single-use amenities here, with Leif refills in each bathroom across both the farmhouse and studio. Linen bathrobes by ethically minded brand CLB Living are found in the walk-in wardrobes, while leather stationery in the workspace encourages the wordsmith in anyone to emerge.

Where to switch off

It’s hard not to relax by the property’s private outdoor swimming pool and spa. And, with a private dry and steam sauna with red-light therapy next to a state-of-the-art gym, rest assured that the wellness facilities have been well curated. There is also an ice bath amid a cleverly designed space situated underneath a viewing deck, avoiding the interruption of vistas. Embracing the wider idea of wellness, beyond the facilities alone, Lo Scoglio takes a holistic approach to its environment. An eighth-generation Aussie farmer, Charlie Arnott has ensured no farming chemicals are on the property, affecting guests’ health during their stay.

The verdict

Lo Scoglio joins the handful of luxury properties in and around Byron Bay, such as newcomer Sun Ranch and legendary Rae’s on Wategos, with both style and originality. Celebrating the Italian way of life, Lo Scoglio is intended to be enjoyed with friends and family, indoors and outdoors; every corner of the property has been considered, to redefine luxury the Byron Bay way. With areas for socialising and self-care, the Arnotts’ philosophy for Lo Scoglio says it all: ‘To create a regenerative atmosphere, so the guest experience is more than a holiday. It has to enable relaxation and a reconnection to self.’

Lo Scoglio is located at 451 Coopers Shoot Rd, Coopers Shoot NSW 2479, Australia; loscoglio.com.au

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Sydney-based practice Tobias Partners is known for its refined residences, with past projects including the restoration of a timber-framed family home overlooking Birra Birra Reef; a geometric townhouse on a steep site in Lavender Bay; and a minimalist retreat in Woollahra.

Now based in neighbouring Paddington, the team – founder Nick Tobias and principals Matthew Krusin, John Richards and Richard Peters – aims to design ‘architecture that will uplift, stand the test of time, and have the power to transform people’s life experience’.

Welcome to Woollahra Village House: a sleek contemporary retreat

Their latest project in Woollahra involves the remodelling of a neo-Georgian house on a quiet residential street and was led by Matt Krusin, Nick Tobias, Amanda Clarke and Campbell Baird. Complementing the adjoining terrace houses, the home is divided in two parts, arranged around a tranquil courtyard garden.

‘Our clients were returning to Sydney after an extended time spent overseas, bringing with them a lifetime’s collection of art, books and belongings from their travels,’ explain the architects. ‘They chose to keep their new home modest in footprint and height – opting for just two storeys rather than the permitted three – to maximise natural light throughout the day, and across the year.’

Woollahra Village House’s street façade, featuring traditional sash windows with multiple small panes, is mirrored and updated in the house’s striking new back façade, a grid of four floor-to-ceiling glazed panels that looks like an oversized, archetypal window frame.

The architects deliberately raised the garden to allow a magnificent existing Chinese elm to sit undisturbed. This also means that the lush greenery is now at eye level in the main living space, with beautiful oak joinery by Saltwater Joinery providing plenty of storage space in the kitchen and adjoining library.

‘The new configuration of the roofs of the main residence completely changes the nature of the house by creating two opposing pitched roofs allowing both bedrooms light and cross ventilation all day, with a sunken roof in between over the bathroom,’ explains Krusin.

As well as oak skylights, the two ensuite bedrooms have walls clad in soft lime mottled plaster. The back bedroom opens onto the courtyard and elm tree, with landscaping by Myles Baldwin Design.

A staircase with floating treads allows natural light to reach the centre of the house. ‘The staircase void is topped by an oak framed full-width skylight that filters light through operable portals into other spaces,’ says Krusin of this key element. ‘The top flight of dog-legged stair floating to further allow light to filter down into the kitchen from above.’

Across the courtyard garden is the garage, with a self-contained studio room above to accommodate visitors, guests, and a carer in the future. It's a perfectly judged composition of materials, with finely detailed steel portals, Petersen brick parapet walls, zinc roofing and sliding timber screens.

‘Creating the flanking brickwork walls was a huge undertaking, but incredibly exciting and rewarding,’ explains Krusin. ‘The walls had to contain zinc roofing and steel portals, so they’re as wide as the width of the brick, and as they pitch back away, they sit on steel trays, which contain pins to connect the steel hoods and zinc roof. It’s an ingenious, well-crafted solution.'

‘We had Michael, the owner of Cumberland Build, doing hand sketches to work out how the steel hoods would connect into the brickwork, we were trying to work it out in finessing detail and junctions from one material to another, the bricklayers were working out how to lay the bricks onto the structure without impacting the neighbours, and the engineer was telling us how often we needed support for the bricks,’ continues Krusin. ‘It was a great team effort and that is what we are so often proud of. We did not stop until everything was perfectly aligned and looking as effortless and timeless as we always strive for in our work.’

Tobias Partners is currently working on a new off-form concrete house with vaulted roofs that steps down a steep corner site overlooking Double Bay. ‘This is very present from the public domain and so deep consideration needed to be given to the building in the round from all sides as well as ensuring privacy for the clients on a day to day basis,’ says Krusin.

tobiaspartners.com

In a world tour across five contemporary homes, we set out to explore how we live. A series of case studies look into ways of living, addressing questions around residential architecture, such as what it means and who it serves. Is the villa typology due for an overhaul? Can homes help preserve communities? What role do light and nature play in slowing down? How can indoor/outdoor living work? Can homes be works of art? All this and more is examined in our series, which unfolds below.

Hop on our world tour of five contemporary homes

Our world tour makes five stops, looking at domestic examples in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. Our stopovers - India, Germany, Côte d’Ivoire, Australia and the USA, respectively – offer rich food for thought around contemporary dwellings and their design. Scroll down and click for more.

Dua Villa by Architecture Brio

A short boat ride from Mumbai, Dua Villa, in Alibaug, is a contemporary Indian villa and the perfect getaway in all seasons, from the monsoon’s torrential rain in July to the scorching high temperatures through May. Built by Architecture Brio, an award-winning firm with offices in Mumbai and Rotterdam, the home was designed as a refuge from the city throughout the year.

The house and grounds – five acres of gardens designed by Kunal Maniar & Associates – were conceived as one, with water features and a swimming pool beautifully enmeshed in the spacious home. For the owners, a couple with three teenage children, the villa’s chunky brick walls set up a cosy enclave, sheltering them from the unpredictable weather. ‘Our clients wanted to be able to get away from the city and feel immersed in this landscape, while still feeling cocooned from the elements,’ says architect Shefali Balwani, who worked on the project with partner and co-founder Robert Verrijt.

Villa Munich by Manuel Herz

This Munich villa's author, Manuel Herz, is known for his adventurous body of work across the globe, from the moving walls of the Babyn Yar synagogue in Ukraine to a sinuous maternity clinic at Tambacounda Hospital in Senegal (W*244), and, opening this April, his Swiss Pavilion for Osaka’s Expo 2025, a light structure of pneumatic spheres. The Basel-based architect has long resisted a one-size-fits-all design approach. ‘There’s no formula in terms of material or geometry that we apply again and again,’ he says. Instead, he sees each project with fresh eyes, responding to the specificities of location, client and programme.

His latest venture is in Munich’s leafy Herzogpark district. A seemingly clear-cut assignment, the commission became an opportunity for Herz to challenge some basic assumptions about what a house should be. The result is a dwelling that not only serves as a family home but also blurs the lines between architecture, art and nature.

L House by Steven Holl

In collectors’ circles, Mark McDonald has been called the godfather of midcentury modern design. His first gallery, Fifty/50, which opened in downtown Manhattan in 1983, jump-started the market for vintage furniture by Marcel Breuer, Alvar Aalto, the Eameses and their contemporaries. Twenty years later, exhausted by the growing competition, he relocated to the upstate New York town of Hudson, where he turned a former department store into a showcase for classic modern design. It’s becoming ever harder to make discoveries from that era, so McDonald and his partner Dwayne Resnick closed the store and commissioned Steven Holl to design a live-work space, a house on a vacant plot behind it to serve as an office, library and showcase for pieces they want to sell. There’s an upstairs bedroom, but their main residence is in nearby Hillsdale, and it’s there they keep the treasures they cannot bear to part with.

‘During the pandemic, I found I didn’t like working from home – too many distractions and not enough space,’ says McDonald. ‘I interviewed Steven at the beginning of his career and followed his work over the years. So, when we decided to build, I sent an email to ask if he would be interested, and half an hour later, he replied: “That would be a nice project for me”.’ Architect and client are near contemporaries – and near neighbours since Holl moved home and archive to Rhinebeck, while keeping his large office in Manhattan.Though McDonald had a limited budget and wanted something straightforward, nothing is simple when two perfectionists collaborate on a project.

Pavilion Ebrah by Koffi & Diabaté Architectes

Thirty years ago, Ivorian architect Guillaume Koffi discovered the coastal town of Assinie-Mafia. A land of exceptional natural beauty, with a lush green forest canopy and 18km of sandy shoreline stretching along the Gulf of Guinea, it was a haven of calm around 80km south east of Côte d’Ivoire’s largest city, Abidjan. Drawn by its distinct topography, marked by the languid waters of Aby Lagoon opening into the tropical waves of the Atlantic, Koffi bought 5,000 sq m of land in the 2000s. The architect’s first objective was to establish a ‘foothold’ in Assinie-Mafia, with the longer term aim of developing a weekend retreat there - a contemporary Côte d'Ivoire house. ‘I didn’t build the house all in one go,’ he says. ‘The construction was spread out in four main steps.’

Koffi began by landscaping the grounds. Later, he built a swimming pool and small pavilion – a simple, modular structure containing a lounge, kitchen, bathroom and gym. His young family would pitch tents and camp on the land. Three bedrooms were added a few years later, followed by a ‘service pavilion’ with guest bedroom and laundry.

Byron Bay 'treehouse'

Elevated on a hill behind two back-to-back cul-de-sacs, this 1980s 'treehouse' home kisses the edge of Arakwal National Park – a conservation area and gloriously verdant rainforest on the far north-east coast of Australia’s New South Wales. Framed by lush greenery, a path leads to the biscuity stretch of sand that spans from Tallow Beach to Broken Head, where sharks, surfers and dolphins share the waves.

In the coveted coastal enclave of Byron Bay, older beach estates of this size and location are rare. Although within cycling distance of town, the neighbourhood feels worlds away from its gentrifying hustle and bustle. The house only takes up a quarter of the plot, the rest being a wild web of native oversized palms, gums, donkey tail succulents and a ten-storey-high pine tree. There is no noise pollution – just a choir of resident rainbow lorikeets, kookaburras and tawny frogmouths forming the soundtrack to daily life for the young family that calls this ‘treehouse’ home.

All five house tours also appear in the April 2025 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on newsstands from 6 March 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Elevated on a hill behind two back-to-back cul-de-sacs, this 1980s home kisses the edge of Arakwal National Park – a conservation area and gloriously verdant rainforest on the far north-east coast of Australia’s New South Wales,. Framed by lush greenery, a path leads to the biscuity stretch of sand that spans from Tallow Beach to Broken Head, where sharks, surfers and dolphins share the waves.

In the coveted coastal enclave of Byron Bay, older beach estates of this size and location are rare. Although within cycling distance of town, the neighbourhood feels worlds away from its gentrifying hustle and bustle. The house only takes up a quarter of the plot, the rest being a wild web of native oversized palms, gums, donkey tail succulents and a ten-storey-high pine tree. There is no noise pollution – just a choir of resident rainbow lorikeets, kookaburras and tawny frogmouths forming the soundtrack to daily life for the young family that calls this ‘treehouse’ home.

Step inside this magical 'treehouse' in Australia's Byron Bay

Only the third owners in about 40 years, they added solar panels and upgraded to lithium-ion batteries. ‘We live off the sun, which affects our lifestyle in a really positive way,’ they say. ‘If it’s raining, you don’t do the laundry; if the weather is beautiful, you don’t use the dryer and can enjoy the day. There’s limited artificial lighting, given the expansive windows, so you live according to the rhythms of the day and night. We’re not hippies or sacrificing our lifestyle by living off-grid, but living this way just creates a more conscious awareness of nature.’

Anchored by a huge, tangerine-toned vintage B&B Italia ‘Camaleonda’ sofa by Mario Bellini, the interiors swim with pieces by Australian creatives, such as emerging ceramicist Zhu Ohmu, Indigenous painter Colin Jones and Japanese-Australian artist Hiromi Tango. The owners adopted a similar design and lifestyle philosophy for The Sunseeker, their nostalgically renovated motel in town. ‘Our approach with both properties has been to maintain the old bones and respect the existing structures, but modernise tastefully. There’s a lot of history there which adds value to new experiences.’

The architectural provenance of the house, originally part of a subdivision, can be attributed to a few local draftspeople and has been designed in a style typical of the time: stilts for cool airflow underneath; louvred windows for natural cross ventilation; timber construction well-suited to the humid, subtropical climate. ‘There are no modern houses in the street and properties are rarely sold, remaining within families who understand the rarity of this unchanged ‘Old Byron’,’ say the homeowners, who have chosen not to have any physical division with their neighbour. ‘Everybody cares deeply about their homes; nobody has knocked down or rebuilt in decades.’

Wrapped by a poinciana tree canopy, the house opens into a kitchen/dining space overlooking a sprawling, sun-dappled living area a few steps down. There’s a mezzanine, and an atrium staircase leads to the children’s domain underneath. A network of decks and walkways envelop the house, overlooking the pool and waterslide, which are a magnet for visitors. Cobblestone paths snake through the garden, winding around a playground, firepit and tennis court. Perfumed with the smell of frangipani and flowering jasmine, the setting is ripe for the bees in the owners’ hives, with the honey bottled up for friends. ‘The house and its location represent everything about community in this town.’ 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up 51.2 per cent of the hospitality workplace in 2023, making it one of the few sectors where they outnumber men. As you move up the organisational hierarchy, however, the numbers paint a different picture, with only 30 per cent of management and leadership positions being held by women.

The representation of women in the upper echelons of hospitality is improving, with a cohort of influential hoteliers changing the guard. We spotlight five of them below; these women are doing brilliant things in their fields, and represent the driving forces behind some of the world’s best hotels.

Top women hoteliers on the changing face of hospitality

Amanda Hyndman, Mandarin Oriental

The chief operating officer of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is a big name in the space, having occupied it for over 30 years. Hyndman was promoted to her role in November 2024, and retains her position as chief people and culture officer. She has worked at Mandarin Oriental for 18 years, holding senior and management roles all over the world, from the UK, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Washington DC to Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland and China.

Wallpaper*: Have you ever felt that working in a male-dominated industry has held you back?

Amanda Hyndman: When I began my career, hospitality was pretty male-dominated, especially in leadership roles. However, I never saw it as a limitation, but rather an opportunity to prove my capability and carve out a path for future female leaders. The key for me was to build great teams and lead with both confidence and kindness. A number of people gave me opportunities and I always had a strong group of peers who had my back. There were also times that I had to advocate for myself and ensure my voice was heard.

W*: Do you feel that the state of the industry has changed?

AH: I dislike the word industry – it sounds like car manufacturing. Hospitality is a profession. There has been progress in gender representation, particularly in recognising the value of diverse leadership, but not enough. At Mandarin Oriental, we see diversity as a core strength that enhances creativity and performance – our business is built on human connection, and there is an increasing recognition that diverse leadership fosters richer, more meaningful experiences.

W*: What does the future hold for women in hospitality?

AH: I would love to see more women not only in senior management but also in operational and ownership roles, shaping the future of luxury hospitality at every level. It’s not just about breaking barriers, but about ensuring that the next generation of female leaders has the support, mentorship and opportunities to thrive.

mandarinoriental.com

Catherine Malouf, The Calile

The Calile is named after Catherine Malouf’s great-grandfather, Calile (originally Khalil) Malouf, who left Lebanon for Australia in 1892. While the family-owned hotel opened in 2018, it was in 2021, under the co-ownership of first-time hotelier Malouf, that it went stratospheric, dubbed Australia’s first ‘urban resort’ and earning a place in the prestigious World’s 50 Best Hotel Awards in 2023 and 2024 (being named Best in Oceania in 2023).

Wallpaper*: Have you ever felt that working in a male-dominated industry has held you back?

Catherine Malouf: Being the eldest daughter in a patriarchal Lebanese family, and born in an era when women were told that they could do anything, I have been personally and professionally defined by challenging gender roles. Not one to conform, I fled the limiting belief that women’s place was in the kitchen with the children and had a humble start in hospitality in my twenties.

With the opening of The Calile Hotel, the opportunity arose for me to become more involved in our family company, initially managing client relationships as project liaison officer. Since then, my role has expanded to include brand development, marketing, cultural programming and partnerships, human resources, charity and philanthropic endeavours.

W*: Do you feel that the state of the industry has changed?

CM: The hotel industry has changed since my start in the mid-1980s, with women taking up ownership and director-level positions. Some of the world’s greatest hotels are owned by women. However, while there are almost an equal number of women and men now working in the industry, there is still a notable underrepresentation of women in senior management, especially in the larger hotel groups. It is pleasing to see women like Marlene Poynder (MD of The Carlyle in New York) become the first woman to lead the 95-year-old hotel, but this is not the norm. [According to the 2023 Women in Hospitality report] one major global hotel group reported only 19 per cent of leadership and C-suite roles being filled by women.

The hospitality industry is very demanding, with the need for its leaders to be available to relocate and be available for night and weekend work and emergency situations. I think that there’s a lack of flexibility for women to prioritise family needs, especially through their child-bearing years. Flexible working hours or working from home are rarely offered – all making it difficult for women to manage a work-family life balance and restricting their ability to rise through the ranks.

W*: What does the future hold for women in hospitality?

CM: I would like to see the industry redefine convention and provide more opportunities and support for women and their career development. We need to provide specific leadership programmes for women, an inclusive work environment, provide pay equality and consciously support gender diversity in our senior management teams. A progressive and supportive human resources department is a good start but, as an industry, we have a long way to go.

thecalilehotel.com

Thelma West, Casina Cinquepozzi

Nigeria-born, London-based Thelma West is co-founder (with former Apple executive Stefano Liotta) of the incoming Casina Cinquepozzi hotel in Putignano, Puglia, which will open in April 2025. Her background is in jewellery design and she has spent over two decades in the diamond industry; West is now applying that eye for detail to the restoration of the 18th-century manor house, preserving its history while blending in contemporary design.

Wallpaper*: Have you ever felt that working in a male-dominated industry has held you back?

Thelma West: I come from two decades in the diamond and jewellery industry, a world steeped in legacy, tradition, and, historically, male dominance. I stepped into hospitality with my eyes wide open. But the road was smoother, not because the challenges had disappeared, but because the world is evolving, and the industry is making space for a more balanced, collaborative approach. It’s not about one gender replacing another, it’s about a broader, vision where creativity, craftsmanship, and leadership aren’t defined by who you are but by what you bring to the table.

W*: Do you feel that the state of the industry has changed?

TW: Did I face resistance in my early career? Absolutely. But the energy now is different. There’s more room for both men and women to thrive. That’s what true progress looks like: an industry where the best ideas win, regardless of who they come from.

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that the best spaces, the most remarkable projects, are created not by one perspective, but by many. I’ve had the privilege of working with incredible women: architects with a vision that challenges the status quo, stone and marble experts whose craftsmanship is poetry in form, restorers who breathe life into the past. These women are rewriting the blueprint.

W*: What does the future hold for women in hospitality?

TW: I see a future where hotels aren’t just businesses, but deeply personal, immersive experiences, shaped by the kind of detail, intuition and vision that women bring effortlessly. More women at the helm means more spaces that feel intentional, not just functional. Going forward, I want to see more women owning, designing and defining what luxury means. Less permission, more power. The doors are open now – let’s walk through them like we built them.

casinacinquepozzi.com

Vanessa Branson, El Fenn

Vanessa Branson’s love affair with Marrakech began in 2002 when she bought a boutique hotel, El Fenn, in the Moroccan capital. In 2005, she became the president and founder of the Arts in Marrakech Festival, now known as the Marrakech Biennale. Over the past two decades, El Fenn has grown from a six-bedroom riad into a labyrinth of 41 individually styled, jewel-toned suites. Branson, who is the sister of business magnate Richard, also owns and runs Eilean Shona, a private island off the west coast of Scotland.

Wallpaper*: Have you ever felt that working in a male-dominated industry has held you back?

Vanessa Branson: I began developing El Fenn with my friend and now-business partner Howell James back in 2003. To be honest, and maybe it was because I was not a local, I was utterly unaware of any gender-based disadvantages. The other person pioneering the industry by developing a riad hotel at the time was a woman named Meryanne Loum-Martin, who now owns Jnane Tamsna.

W*: Do you feel that the state of the industry has changed?

VB: I don’t believe gender is an issue for any western hotelier these days. I imagine a disproportionate number of terrific boutique hotels are owned and run by women.

W*: What does the future hold for women in hospitality?

VB: More of the same, I hope. Women are natural hoteliers – we love building nests and creating comfortable, beautiful spaces. We are exacting in our standards and enjoy working with a young team… and we love to feed people!

el-fenn.com

Valentina de Santis, Passalacqua

Valentina De Santis spent her childhood summers running around the halls of the legendary Grand Hotel Tremezzo, a staple of Lake Como since 1973. Following in her family’s footsteps, she eventually took on the role of CEO at the hotel and later opened Passalacqua, an intimate 24-key boutique property that has earned a reputation as one of the best hotels in the world.

Wallpaper*: Have you ever felt that working in a male-dominated industry has held you back?

Valentina De Santis: I was blessed with a father who taught me that being a woman in a male-dominated industry was not something to overcome, but something to celebrate – that the ‘something extra’ women bring to the table only serves to enrich the conversation. The industry just didn’t seem that male-dominated to me when I first joined the family business: I was lucky enough to be in a work environment where women have always occupied key roles. So, basically, since I can remember, I’ve always been driven to think that I could get wherever I wanted.

W*: Do you feel that the state of the industry has changed?

VDS: I started in the hospitality industry about 15 years ago, and I’m so inspired to see a new generation of women coming up in my industry (and elsewhere). Today, I’m proud to say that women hold most of the key roles at the top of our company – even areas that used to be very male-oriented, such as food & beverage or conciergerie. What a joy to see that their dreams and what they will accomplish just keep getting bigger.

W*: What does the future hold for women in hospitality?

VDS: I’d love for the whole world to see exactly what I see: that the core values in hospitality are feminine (elegance, sensitivity, nurturing) and that the value added by women in this industry is unparalleled. For all the women in hospitality and hotels, as well as my own daughter; the sky is the limit!

passalacqua.it

Located on bustling Russell Street, Melbourne Place is the city’s newest independent hotel that oozes colour, charisma and cultural identity. It’s intriguing and expressive; checking in here sets the mood for urban exploration in a city renowned for its art, fashion, coffee and culinary scene.

Melbourne Place feels perfectly at ease amongst towering plane trees, buzzing laneways, coffee roasters and soaring cathedral spires, where heritage-listed neighbours – like Hero, the original telephone exchange – anchor the handsome newcomer in the city’s vernacular.

Wallpaper* checks in at: Melbourne Place

What’s on your doorstep?

Located on the ‘Paris end’ of Russell Street, the hotel is desirably central and only a short amble from familiar favourites: The Block Arcade, Treasury Gardens, Her Majesty’s Theater, the State Library and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). The hotel's sweeping street frontage will soon fill with intriguing boutiques in true Melbourne fashion. For a quintessential Melbourne experience, grab a croissant from Lune Croissanterie and a latte from People’s Coffee before boarding the City Circle Tram.

Who is behind the design?

The 16-storey urban sanctuary is the first foray into the hotel landscape for lauded Melbourne-based architect Kennedy Nolan, who enlisted a host of local makers and artists to shape the identity of the city’s newest icon. The result is a visual feast that amplifies volume, light, colour and textures, both inside and out.

‘The brief was to make it distinct from global brands, a truly independent hotel to give the visitor an authentic sense of something made in, by and for the city and those who want a piece of it,’ says Patrick Kennedy, the founding partner and principal architect of Kennedy Nolan.

Despite its newly formed modernist bones and playful, contemporary interior, Melbourne Place is drenched in cultural character, a feat only realisable by commissioning local makers and designers. And here, first impressions count. Guests are lured from the street into the lobby by an enormous screen. Curated by MARS Gallery, the hotel showcases the diversity of Australian modern art with intriguing digital works from artists Atong Atem, Brodie Kokkinos, Tristan Jalleh, Cameron Robbins and Kent Morris.

Outside, the hotel’s highly modelled façade features red accents and locally fired bricks from a historic brickworks factory. Inside, the same muted brickwork, West Australian jarrah and Corten steel flow throughout while playfully dousing each floor in spectrums of colour. ‘The thing I enjoy most is the thresholds, the unexpected shifts in colour as you move through the spaces, which is sometimes surprising but still feels cohesive,’ shares Kennedy. On level ten in the Urban Soak room, sky-blue finger tiles are deliciously fresh in contrast to the camel-coloured walls, shocking-orange wall sconces, sheer terracotta curtains and layers of burnt orange, pinks and rust.

The room to book

Melbourne Place has 191 rooms that range from functional ‘Everyday’ rooms to spacious suites and the penthouse, presiding over the city. Each floor evolves in an alchemy of colour, texture and personality with striking portraits by Melbourne-based artist Atong Atem.

There’s no doubt that the penthouse is the most coveted check-in at Melbourne Place. It’s notably lighter and brighter – thanks to double-height windows and creamy terrazzo tiles – than the floors below, bathed in sweeping city views from sunrise to set. It’s meticulously finessed and laden in marble, with a ten-seater dining table and in-suite bar, a custom low-lying Jardan lounger and a baby grand piano.

Located on level ten, at the end of the bottle-green corridor, you’ll find Urban Soak. Inside, styling notes are moody and atmospheric: bespoke Frette linen melts over a king-sized bed, musk-pink terrazzo tiles by Fibonacci are layered with playful rugs by Cadry’s; a bespoke ‘Joy Bear’ chair by Jardan invites lounging; and rich jarrah timber cabinetry frames ceramic Robert Gordon basins.

But it’s the huge soak tub that makes this room a standout. Designed by Thomas Coward for Mains Water Co, the tub is poised to take in the urban sprawl and is flanked by voluptuous Zachary Frankel bath stools where you’ll find Aesop amenities perched beside branded linen robes.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Mid Air, suspended on level 12, is a convivial meeting place for Melbournians and out-of-towners. Once again, design dominates with the likes of canvas-clad ‘TBC2’ dining chairs by Dowel Jones, tiled tabletops and pockets of curved sofas in warm reds. Here on the sunny terrace, hatted chef Nick Deligiannis serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner with Eastern-Mediterranean flavours, culminating in a three-course tasting menu, all under the gaze of two oversized circular ‘eyes’ framing the cityscape. A word for the wise: while the energy of the Mid Air may feel laid-back, book ahead – walk-ins, even for mid-week drinks, can mean a lengthy wait, by which time you would have mozied off to a nearby bar, albeit in a less impressive setting.

Restaurateurs Ross and Sunny Lusted are at the helm of Marmelo, the hotel’s ground-floor dining room and bar. The menu, which highlights wood-fired fare with the globe-crossing flavours of Portugal and coastal Spain, feels earthy and creative. Salgados served at street level include Corner Inlet garfish and salted Murray cod and whipped potato croquettes with hot mustard, followed by grilled octopus and Goan curry. Wash it down with a Peach & Leite sour. Don’t leave without ordering a traditional Pasteis de Nata with cinnamon and the woodfired olive oil cheesecake with a sprinkling of sea salt. It serves two but you’ll be forgiven for indulging solo.

For a late-night rendezvous, descend to Mr Mills (courtesy of Ross and Sunny Lusted), the hotel’s moody basement bar, for Spanish-inspired snacks and artisanal cocktails best devoured in dimly lit booths under neon lights.

The service

The team are upbeat and enthusiastic, and the check-in is seamless. The staff know Melbourne, and with a finger on the pulse, they are quick to offer recommendations, from hole-in-the-wall coffee dens to hidden bars and quirky shops. And for everything else, the integrated in-room tablet makes communicating a breeze. On the ground floor, Marmelo’s friendly hosts are eager to make you comfortable. And while they don’t profess to be child-friendly (there are no high chairs in sight), they couldn’t be more willing to accommodate little ones even in the heat of dinner service.

The verdict

Melbourne Place feels refreshing and enticing. It hums with creativity and urban energy and its character is unmistakenly Melbourne. With a synergy of social spaces, curiosity, art and deeply comfortable, tactile rooms, you’ll want to languish here and Instagram everything. And while it may have forgone a wellness offering and a pool, the hotel brings its culinary offerings into focus with really, really good food, coffee (thanks to Veneziano coffee) and drinks, the true heroes of life in Melbourne.

Melbourne Place is located at 130 Russell St, Melbourne 3000, Australia; melbourneplace.com.au. Rates: from $362 AUD

Silhouette House, a modernist Melbourne house, has been reimagined to 21st-century standards by local architects Powell & Glenn. The structure, a fine example of modernist architecture in Australia, is a generous property adjacent to the city's Royal Botanic Gardens in South Yarra. As it is protected by heritage and planning regulations, the architecture team worked with specialist consultant Roger Beeson, who helped guide them in their meticulous restoration of the home's fabric.

Silhouette House: a modernist Melbourne house's makeover

The Powell & Glenn intervention to the structure involved bringing it back to its original glory by removing, cleaning and re-installing many of its bricks, while discreetly adding concrete walls – invisible from the outside – that help composed a new lower ground level to add extra space for the new owners.

'From unusual parameters came unusual design solutions,' says Ed Glenn, practice director, who added they pursued 'strong spaces that didn’t feel unpleasant, too acute or obtuse. [...] What’s left is a combination of poetic spaces, offering an interesting play of transition and repose.'

The interior has also been updated, now featuring marble palladiana flooring in the entrance lobby, a sculptural, tactile marble plinth shaping the kitchen island, refreshed crisp white walls, and the clients' expansive art collection – transforming the space into what feels akin to a contemporary gallery with a domestic twist.

Meanwhile, lush green gardens designed in collaboration with Myles Baldwin Design help the property blend with its surroundings, nodding to the natural beauty of the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens. Landscaped courtyards dotting the home's layout help all main living spaces feel engulfed in foliage.

Interior surfaces are 'mediating between the raw and refined,' says Clementine Jacobs, head of interiors at Powell & Glenn. Warm timber gives way to cool marbles, and colour accents, such as the deep green hues of the powder room, provide moments of drama and intimacy.

'The additions and spirit of the design has a fineness to it, with beautiful spaces to connect as a family and quieter spaces that are more solitary and intimate,' says Glenn.

powellandglenn.com.au

There is something so elegant about the idea of travelling by train. It conjures visions of a bygone era, Old Hollywood glamour, and luggage in the form of trunks rather than backpacks. When it’s done right – and we are not talking about the daily commute – train travel can be a truly luxurious experience. Trains don’t require the faff that comes with catching a flight. And you don't miss a thing en route. Trains are a means of slow travel, allowing people to enjoy the journey rather than simply get to their destination.

Here, to help you escape in unhurried style and sophistication, we’ve put together our pick of the world’s most luxurious train journeys. So sit back, relax and enjoy the view.

Our pick of the world’s most luxurious train journeys

Andean Explorer, Peru

South America’s first luxury train, the Andean Explorer snakes its way through the stunning landscape of Peru. From the open-air observation car, discover Lake Titicaca and the floating island of Uros. The Andean Explorer’s design steps away from the vintage-style luxury we see with some high-end trains, and instead boasts a more contemporary aesthetic. Local cuisine is on the menu, with Peruvian dishes and Andean ingredients. There are also options for spa trips and excursions.

belmond.com

Danube Express Golden Eagle, Eastern Europe

Visit the castles of Transylvania or Christmas markets of Austria – the Danube Express Golden Eagle explores the best of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The exclusive train carries just 50 passengers and offers decadent comfort in each carriage. Interiors nod to 1920s glamour, but carriages come with modern technology. Guests can enjoy regional cuisines and sightseeing at every stop.

goldeneagleluxurytrains.com

Eastern & Oriental Express, Malaysia

The sister train to The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the Eastern & Oriental Express travels from Singapore into Malaysia. The carriages feature cream and jade-green exteriors, while polished wood-panelled corridors and silk and delicate detailing set an opulent mood inside. There’s a Dior spa on board, the Bar Car serves as an exclusive jazz club, with flowing cocktails and champagne, while the Piano Car offers gentler tunes, a perfect accompaniment to a quiet nightcap.

belmond.com

The Ghan, Australia

The Ghan offers multiple routes through Australia but is most known for journeying from Darwin to Adelaide. Traversing the heart of the country, the route and its stops offer access to some of the people, places and stories that shape Australia. With elegant suites (the interiors were redesigned by Woods Bagot in 2024) and fine dining, The Ghan ticks all the luxury rail trip boxes. Its ‘off-train’ experiences span from a tranquil cruise down the Katherine River to exploring the desert habitats of Alice Springs.

journeybeyondrail.com

The Maharajas’ Express, India

Journeying through North-West and Central India, with a focus on Rajasthan’s rich heritage, The Maharajas Express is one of India’s (and the world’s) finest luxury trains. It features 23 carriages, including two dining cars, a private lounge with a bar called the Rajah Club, and even a souvenir shop.

maharajas-express.com

Royal Scotsman, Scotland

Scotland has abundant breathtaking scenery, and the Belmond Royal Scotsman is a journey that balances enchantment and tradition. This luxury train took its first journey in 1985 and was originally composed of sleeping cars and three dining carriages. Now, this has expanded (and includes a Dior spa car) but still exudes an Edwardian country house feel thanks to the warm interiors. The routes around Scotland include scope for everything from whisky tasting to wild swimming and visiting historic castles.

belmond.com

Rovos Pride of Africa

Rovos Pride of Africa has multiple trains and routes across the continent, taking in Botswana, Zambia, Eswatini, Tanzania and Mozambique among other countries. The style of the carriages has an earthy, African safari feel, with traditional luxury (we are talking about soaking in a full-size bathtub on board). On the journey from Pretoria to Durban, as an example, take in sweeping views of the savannah, and learn about the cultural history and influence of the Zulu people.

rovos.com

Seven Stars Kyushu

Old-world glamour takes on a new interpretation aboard the Seven Stars Kyushu, a luxurious sleeper train that travels across Japan’s third-largest island, making stops at Fukuoka, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and Kumamoto. Seats on this train are highly sought after, requiring prospective guests to enter a lottery to secure a reservation. The train showcases the finest of Japanese artistry and craftsmanship across its suites and lounges, while its Jupiter Dining Car offers seasonal ingredients from the countryside and seas of Kyushu.

cruisetrain-sevenstars.jp

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, Europe

The Orient Express began its service in 1883, famously departing from Paris and journeying across Europe before arriving in Istanbul. With the original train no longer in service, Belmond’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express (whose JR-designed suite won a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025) carries through the legacy honourably, travelling between Paris and Venice or Verona, as well as Prague, Budapest and Vienna. The journey remains the pinnacle of luxury and elegance, with a touch of sultry mystery. In 2026, the company will refurbish 17 original Orient Express cars, dating back to the 1920s and 1930s.

belmond.com

Unlike London’s Paddington, which is synonymous with everyone’s favourite marmalade-eating bear, Paddington in Australia’s Sydney is known for its abundance of art galleries and boutique shopping, alongside designer pop-ups and markets. Now the neighbourhood is home to Studio Henry Wilson, as the eponymous designer opens up his first store.

Inside Studio Henry Wilson's showroom and store

‘The idea for a store started, like many good things, by chance,’ says Wilson, who stumbled upon the location, which is set beneath the area's old Scout Hall. ‘I happened to catch a sign at the small space and immediately admired the even light from both sides and the large, copper-lined Victorian shop-front window. It had a simple, flexible interior by the architect Madeleine Blanchfield, which had housed her meeting room and library for several years.’

The studio which was established in 2012, is known for its furniture, lighting, accessories and components in metal, stone and glass, all characterised by their utilitarianism and, in Wilson’s words, ‘giving precedence to form and function’. He is also drawn to the charm and beauty that comes with pieces made by hand, making sure that durability isn't compromised. ‘I see longevity as one of the simpler forms of sustainability we can hope to achieve as contemporary designers’.

This creative approach is threaded through the interior of the designer’s first flagship. Paying homage to Blanchfield’s original architecture, Wilson wanted the store to feel like a ‘collector’s apartment’. The warm white walls act like a canvas to showcase his work, while the uneven floors and pressed tin ceiling help to modernise the space. An elongated steel plinth runs the length of the interior and acts as both display area and storage for merchandise.

The store is not only a showcase of Wilson’s work, but also a platform for other Australian-made pieces, and items that he personally finds to be beautiful and functional, including glassware and linen, scents such as handmade pure wood incense, and oils from Perfumer H and Aesop, as well as personal care products from To My Ships.

The Australian landscape is what inspires Wilson, especially the arid nature and unpredictability of the weather. ‘Nothing remains perfect in Australian conditions, and I believe weathering is to be accepted and valued even up to the extent of effecting subtle imperfections during manufacture.

'I have struggled to justify the mercantile aspect of the store; certainly, it makes little sense on paper. However, in the face of an increasingly fragmented community, I wanted a place to meet and to house the objects we make. Somewhere for the public to see, feel and sense what we do.'

Studio Henry Wilson showroom is located at 87 Paddington Street, Sydney, Australia studiohenrywilson.com

After an interminably long January, February calls for sunshine and escape. No need to wait for summer when there’s such invigorating magic in the winter sun. From intimate seaside inns to sprawling tropical resorts, here are six Wallpaper*-approved escapes where you can reset and recharge.

Auka Boipeba, Brazil

On the bijou Bahian island of Boipeba, Auka Boipeba delivers a dual bliss of jungle and beach. Designed by FGMF, its 20 suites balance raw concrete, cobogós (perforated bricks used to build walls), and private plunge pools, all angled for ocean views. The beachside spa taps into local botanicals, while the restaurant serves shrimp stew risotto and yellowtail snapper ceviche straight from the island’s waters. A polygonal pool, sun deck, and sauna complete the scene.

Auka Boipeba is located at R. Praia Boca da Barra - Velha Boipeba, Cairu - BA, 45426-000, Brazil, aukaboipeba.com.br

Velha Boipeba’s average February temperature: 29° / 26° (High / Low)

Read our full hotel review of Auka Boipeba

Casa Yuma, Puerto Escondido, Mexico

Minutes away from the beach of Los Naranjos and the lively village of La Punta in the Mexican municipality of Puerto Escondido, Casa Yuma is a peaceful oceanfront oasis that celebrates its surroundings. Architect Ricardo de La Concha, with studio TAAC, designed the hotel to blend into the environment using native materials and locally sourced ceramics and furnishings. Its 25 rooms exude warmth, while an ocean-view pool, yoga sessions, and soulful Mexican cuisine set the tone for a balmy escape.

Casa Yuma is located at Ventanilla KM 153, Lote 10 Los Naranjos, Mexico; casayuma.com

Puerto Escondido’s average February temperature: 29° / 22° (High / Low)

Read our full hotel review of Casa Yuma

Cheval Blanc St-Barth

A Caribbean jewel with Parisian poise, Cheval Blanc St-Barth offers palatial relaxation on the sun-drenched shores of Baie des Flamands. Designed by Jacques Grange, its 61 suites and villas embody the essence of plush island living. At La Case, Jean Imbert’s vibrant menu sets the stage for long, languid lunches, while Guerlain’s spa rituals unfold in serene seclusion. Whether snorkelling the reefs, toasting at the Tiki-inspired bar, or indulging in a private beachfront dinner, this is St-Barth at its best.

Cheval Blanc St-Barth is located at Baie des Flamands, Saint-Barthélemy 97133, St Barthélemy; chevalblanc.com

St-Barth’s average February temperature: 29° / 23° (High / Low)

Read our full hotel review of Cheval Blanc St-Barth

Il Delfino, Yamba, Australia

Tucked along Yamba’s pandanus-fringed coastline, Il Delfino revives a 1948 sailor’s inn with Mediterranean soul and Australian ease. Designer Sheree Commerford preserved the original building’s midcentury charm, restoring wooden floors, geometric archways, and sunbathed terraces where guests can linger over coffee, lulled by the tide. Each of the five suites, named after Italy’s coastal gems, pairs handmade tiles, vintage wares, and bespoke ceramics with the comfort of integrated kitchens and Smeg coffee machines. From whale watching on the terrace to feasting on Clarence Valley’s finest produce, Il Delfino is an intimate inn of coastal passion.

Il Delfino is located at 4 Ocean St, Yamba NSW 2464, Australia; ildelfino.com.au

Yamba’s average February temperature: 27° / 19° (High / Low)

Read our full hotel review of Il Delfino

Singita Milele, Natta, Tanzania

Set within the 350,000 acres that make up Tanzania’s Grumeti Reserve, Singita Milele is a 1,200 sq ft buyout villa that redefines the modern safari retreat. Designed by HK Studio, its five distinct suites echo the Serengeti’s palette – natural textures dominate, with earthy hues combined with soft grassy shades. From a starlit infinity pool to a speakeasy-style bar and open-fire boma, every detail invites connection. Here, the savannah isn’t just seen – it’s felt, with no barriers between guests and wilderness.

Singita Milele is located in Natta, Tanzania; singita.com

Natta’s average February temperature: 29° / 17° (High / Low)

Read our full hotel review of Singita Milele

Ta’aktana Labuan Bajo, Indonesia

On the Indonesian island of Flores, Ta’aktana puts the fishing village of Labuan Bajo on the luxury map. Spanning 16 hectares, the 70-key retreat – including seven overwater sea villas – marries curved silhouettes and natural wood with a modern, minimalist edge, courtesy of ANP Interiors. Just an hour from Komodo National Park, it’s a basecamp for adventure, from snorkelling at Taka Makassar to hikes on Padar Island. Ta’aktana’s five distinct food and beverage concepts continue with Taba’s Japanese robata cuisine, while Di’a Spa’s cave-inspired rituals offer a restorative experience.

Ta’aktana Labuan Bajo is located at Pantai Wae Rana, Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara 86763, Indonesia, marriott.com

Labuan Bajo’s average February temperature: 29° / 24° (High / Low)

Read our full hotel review of Ta’aktana Labuan Bajo

Located in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, this suburban house, a new double home by Justin Mallia Architecture transforms an existing two-storey building into a series of courtyards and interlocking spaces. The square plot was previously home to a traditionally styled two-storey bungalow surrounded by a garden that had been hemmed in by neighbouring extensions.

A suburban house elevated through a series of courtyards and interlocking spaces

Mallia was tasked to build over the overshadowed garden and create a new separate dwelling, but the resulting project, known as Scarborough and Welkin, manages to eke out new pockets of outdoor space together with improved amenity and privacy. Careful planning and sun modelling allowed for the creation of angled new structure that appears to intersect the original house. Although set back from the street, the new addition doesn’t read like a separate structure, more like a deconstruction addition to the existing house.

Mallia’s intervention allowed the client to keep trees from the original garden, while roof gardens and terraces provide new – and much lighter – spaces for planting and growth. All this is linked with what the architect describes as a ‘complex circulation network’, manifesting in a series of paths and walkways that weave through the site, provide a separate and private first floor access to the second house, and span multiple levels to create dynamic and vivid living spaces.

The set back of the new house preserves the heritage character of Clifton Hill, without compromising its modernist credentials. To the right of the traditional wooden garden fence is a route leading to covered parking, whilst pushed up at the edge of the site is timber and steel arbour that slopes up towards the new house’s front door.

The ground floor of the original structure has been repurposed to include four bedrooms and an open plan kitchen and living area. The original entrance porch has been preserved, while later additions at the rear have been removed to accommodate the new house. ‘The building mass is permeated with cracks and fissures,’ Mallia explains, ‘these allow natural ventilation and filtered northern sunlight to penetrate throughout a vastly varying arrangement of spaces that are a delight and surprise to encounter.’

Upstairs, the original attic has been transformed into two bedrooms, a bathroom and utility space to serve the new house. Reached by a wood-lined staircase that marks the junction between old and new, the attic rooms are connected to the two levels of the main house, one of which serves as the kitchen diner and the other the living room and principal bedroom suite.

The roofscape of both houses appears to blend together, with separate terraces for each dwelling that step up and down across the site. The original chimney remains as a brick totem amidst the new planting, privacy screens, seating areas and steps that criss-cross the site. A solar array takes up the whole upper roof area of the new house, while the original terracotta tiles have been left as a backdrop to the roof garden.

In addition to the solar panels, the project includes battery storage, a heat pump for hot water, rainwater recovery and storage for irrigation and EV charging points. ‘Scarborough and Welkin creatively reinvents a flexible approach to modern housing, infilling a compromised gap in the urban fabric and achieving a balance that is bold and innovative while engaging respectfully and modestly with its surroundings,’ Mallia concludes.

JustinMallia.com

The Northern Beaches – the home of Palm Beach Tree House – is a strip of land just north of the City of Sydney, fronting the South Pacific. With steep sandstone slopes running down to sandy beaches, the districts that make up the Northern Beaches are a popular place to live in seaside suburbia, fringed by old-growth forests.

Explore the verdant Palm Beach Tree House

Palm Beach is set at the northern point of the area, a narrow promontory with lanes that wind up and down the hillside, with villas of varying sizes set back behind thick vegetation. This project by local architect Richard Cole Architecture is a radical transformation of an existing cottage into a family holiday home. Severely damaged by storms, the original building was substantially upgraded, whilst preserving the impressive site and increasing the connection between inside and out.

The architects retained the existing plan but extended the floor area out towards the east, oversailing a new canopy roof across the new structure. This had the benefit of opening up the living spaces towards the Pacific and also giving a deeper connection to the old growth forest on the surrounding hills to the north and west.

‘The starting point was the existing cottage, which had a sandstone base and masonry walls, but which was very internal and dark,’ says Cole. ‘It had cramped living areas and did not take advantage of the beautiful bushland site. The renovation opened the building to the light and the views.’ A substantial deck reaches out into the trees, with the narrow vertical wooden slats standing in contrast to the twisting tree trunks.

The architects had a straightforward brief. ‘The house was a place for the family to come together, so it had to have generous, open communal spaces, flexible accommodation for many and be simple to clean and maintain,’ says Cole. ‘The new house also had to be accessible, so that both elderly grandparents and small children could use all the spaces, despite the steeply sloping site.’ Even though the original sandstone base was retained, the house feels much larger thanks to new openings to decks and terraces.

‘The essence of the house is simplicity,’ Coles emphasises. ‘Beach holidays are uncomplicated and largely lived outdoors when possible, so the house facilitates this with modest spaces and facilities. A compact plan allows the family to spend time together rather than cleaning.’ The layout exploits some of the compromises inherent in holiday accommodation, with bedrooms that open directly off the main communal living areas. ‘It's something which would not generally be acceptable in a permanent home, but which brings a sense of everyone bunking down together when on holiday,’ the architect says.

Timber floors and cabinetry are set against simple white walls and large expanses of frameless glass, both for the windows and the folding doors onto the various outdoor spaces. A high ceiling in the main living space emphasises the house’s elevated position, with tree trunks and leafy canopies visible through low and high-level windows.

Richard Cole set up his Avalon Beach studio in 1998, after working for a number of Australian practices, including Hassell Architects and Peter Stutchbury. ‘The architect’s role is to enable an optimal resolution of the client’s needs within their parameters,’ the studio states. ‘Our aim is to bring to this process an excellence and rigour in design, documentation and construction.’

RichardColeArchitecture.com.au

It’s not exactly easy to pinpoint where the Wallpaper* editors will be. From design festivals to fashion weeks and OOO adventures, there’s always something exciting on our team’s calendars. Keep reading to find out where the magazine’s staff members will be heading in the new year.

Wallpaper* editors’ 2025 getaway plans

LA: Charlotte Gunn, Director of Digital Content

‘I will look forward to my annual trip to Los Angeles to visit friends and family. I spend the year diligently plotting all the new openings I want to try on a Google Map so I am fully prepped by the time we arrive. I’m already itching to try Camelia, a French fusion restaurant which opened in Echo Park at the end of the summer. I’m also keen to see how the development of Melrose Hill has progressed since my last visit – a couple of notable galleries had moved into the area and there was a pledge to redevelop a disused retail block with new independent shops and restaurants. To get me through the long British winter, I shall be dreaming of fresh seafood at sundown from The Jolly Oyster on Ventura beach.’

Venice & Helsinki: Ellie Stathaki, Architecture & Environment Director

‘The Venice Architecture Biennale always causes a stir of excitement at the architecture desk, so my biannual visit to the Italian city in May for the vernissage is at the top of my list for 2025. I am also dreaming of a winter trip to Helsinki. I’ve always felt there’s lots to see and enjoy in the Nordic capital, and I have only scratched the surface. I have only ever been for work, so going on a long weekend in a private capacity is also on my list. The reopening of Alvar Aalto’s Finlandia Hall in January just adds to the reasons why.’

Switzerland & Budapest: Hannah Tindle, Beauty & Grooming Editor

‘I’m hoping to travel to Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland in 2025, a spa and clinic that has been running since 1931. (Previous devotees to its ‘CLP method’ include Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo). I also want to visit the Omorovicza spa in Budapest, another institution with a storied past, built on the Rác Thermal Bath, which dates back to the 16th century.’

Naoshima: Jason Hughes, Creative Director

‘In 2025, I’m heading back to Japan, more specifically to visit the islands of Naoshima and Teshima, which sit in the Seto Inland Sea and are easily accessible by ferry from Osaka. Famous for their art and architecture, I look forward to exploring both islands on a bicycle and seeing the works of artists Yayoi Kusama, James Turrell, Walter De Maria and Lee Ufan. I’m planning to stay at Benesse House, a museum and hotel concept, designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando.’

Australia, Uzbekistan and beyond: Lauren Ho, Travel Director

‘As I live my life constantly on the road, it’s important for me to plan my trips so that I make the most of each region or destination I am in. For 2025, I will be ringing in the new year in Sydney, followed by a few weeks of checking out new hotels in Australia. In late January, I will be heading to Beijing to see the newly opened Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, the group’s newest property, which unfolds within a 600-year-old hutong complex. This will be followed by a trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which I am particularly excited about, and then, I will make my way to Europe, where I plan to explore Greece’s new hotel openings, and will head from Lisbon to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. While luxury hotels are my passion, at least once a year I like to visit a random destination I have never been to and that most people might not have access to. Finally, by June, I hope to make my annual pilgrimage to Africa to get my safari fix.’

Malaysia: Melina Keays, Entertaining Director

‘In February, I am travelling to The Datai beach resort in Langkawi - one of my favourite destinations in the world. Langkawi is the largest of a cluster of islands off the coast of northwestern Malaysia, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Malacca. I’ve been visiting this wonderful place for decades, and it never loses its allure. Langkawi is a proper tropical paradise; awarded Geopark status by UNESCO, it offers lush rainforests, stunning mountain ranges and white sand beaches.

There are fantastic things to see and do all over the island, which is rich in history and culture, but I could easily spend all my time at The Datai resort itself. It was designed by visionary architect Kerry Hill, who was determined to honour its environment, and set high over Datai Bay. The hotel is melded into its jungle setting, and its beautiful rooms and spaces float amidst the rainforest canopy, with breathtaking views of the Andaman Sea. The food at the Datai is superb, and I am particularly looking forward to the delicious Malaysian cuisine at The Gulai House, which is to be found at the end of a candle-lit jungle trail.’

Geneva: Tianna Williams, Editorial Executive

‘For the first week of spring, I will be heading to Geneva, Switzerland, to reunite with my cousin and sister. The location of this annual reunion varies from year to year, from the rolling hills of Shropshire, the coastline of the Gower Peninsula to London’s Hyde Park. I am excited to trade the London smog for crisp Mont Blanc mountain air, warm up with soothing mugs of hot chocolate, and, if feeling brave, take a plunge in Lake Geneva.’

Madrid, Rome, Paris: Sofia de la Cruz, Travel Editor

‘I tend to be quite spontaneous with the locations I travel to, often booking trips or accepting invitations at the last minute. That said, I will begin the new year in Madrid, and a few weeks later, I have a trip planned to Rome to explore the upcoming Hotel Romeo Roma, one of Zaha Hadid’s final projects before she died in 2016. I also have a weekend in Paris scheduled, which is something I make a point to do every year. As for the rest of the year, I hope to fulfil my lifelong dream of visiting Japan.’

Shanghai: Smilian Cibic, Editorial Assistant

‘I’m travelling to Shanghai to visit my dad, who has been working there for the past five years. I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s been up to. He’s designed his own micro home apartment, which has had quite a stir in the Chinese press. We will then travel together to Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of China and then Shenzhen, the tech capital of the world.’

For more Travel content, visit Wallpaper*’s dedicated channel

Feast your eyes on some of the top houses of 2024 in our edit of 12 outstanding residential stories. The end of the year and the start of a new one always prompt a bit of stock-taking and looking back – before we look forward, fully re-energised. These homes all commanded our attention during 2024; some through their ability to make us think, and some because they inspired us to travel virtually, from our sofa, through the sheer power of their captivating design and site.

Top 12 houses of 2024, picked by Wallpaper’s Ellie Stathaki

The 12 houses that follow represent some of the year's most-read stories, sprinkled with a handful of Wallpaper* team faves. Interestingly, stylish new designs sit alongside rediscovered modernist architecture classics, and results include projects from different corners of the Earth. Scroll down to see them all.

Station Lodge by Andrei Saltykov, UK

Station Lodge peeks out between New Malden's typical period homes, inviting visitors to the architecturally unexpected. This new home, designed by architect Andrei Saltykov in south-west London is certainly unusual – and offers a radical subversion to the residential architecture of its region.

Explore Station Lodge

Petra Island Massaro House by Frank Lloyd Wright, USA

Joe Massaro’s personal charm and determination should not be underestimated. Many before him had tried and failed to realise Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposal for a 5,000 sq ft residence on Petra Island, a heart-shaped private islet on Lake Mahopac, in New York’s Hudson Valley. He made it happen.

Explore Petra Island Massaro House

Concrete House by the Ocean by Micaela Benedicto of MB Architecture Studio, The Philippines

In a way, Concrete House by the Ocean does what it says on the tin – this family residence in The Philippines celebrates a concrete construction in a privileged seaside plot near the city of Nasugbu in the province of Batangas. Its name's simplicity, however, can be deceptive, as architect Micaela Benedicto had to masterfully craft the house to take in the striking seaside views of its cliffside location and be a comfortable contemporary home in refined minimalist architecture for her clients.

Explore Concrete House by the Ocean

Big Sur House by Field Architecture, USA

The rugged wilderness surrounding this Big Sur house is representative of its section of the Californian coast. Big Sur stretches 75 miles from Carmel to Gorda and offers truly dramatic landscapes, with the Santa Lucia mountains rising sharply 5,000 ft above sea level. It is in this dynamic and remote environment, shaped by heavy winter storms, wildfires, and the mighty Pacific Ocean, that you will find the latest private residence by Field Architecture.

Explore Big Sur House

Casa M by A-Lab Architecture, Portugal

A pattern of cement blocks poetically punctuates Casa M's exterior, a home which stands sentinel on a hill in Alvor, a seaside village of Algarve. The Portuguese region has over 300 days of sun per year, which makes it challenging to design homes without the AC unit – a bête noire of green-minded architects. One natural cooling tactic – common in Palm Springs and São Paulo, too – is cobogós, the hollow bricks that allow cool air to permeate a space without exposing it to the sun. This is exactly what this house is making the most of.

Explore Casa M

House of Greens by 4site Architects, India

In the suburbs of Bengaluru, India, House of Greens is a private slice of serenity, tucked away behind falling vines and leafy shrubbery. The home is designed by 4site Architects, who focused on creating a residence in touch with nature, visually and physically, for their clients. The architecture firm, based locally, wanted its work to reflect its home town's nickname, 'City of Gardens', a nod to its abundance of green space. Drawing inspiration from the surrounding gardens, parks and lakes, this home is a tranquil retreat with sustainable architecture and greenery at its core.

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House in High Park by Ian MacDonald Architect, Canada

With House in High Park, it's clear why Ian MacDonald has become Toronto’s architect of record for a certain homeowner blessed – whether they recognise it or not – with a tricky location. The architect's extraordinary buildings don’t merely overcome inhospitable conditions; they benefit from sharing their space with stubborn rock, overgrowth and draconian red tape. His talent lies in transforming such liabilities into fascinating characteristics. This vacant plot overlooking a 400-acre park – a so-called 'missing tooth' in the residential streetscape – presented just his sort of challenge.

Explore House in High Park

Four Mumbai apartments by Rajiv Saini, India

Four Mumbai apartments in the Indian city's Colaba district have been transformed into a single, flowing, family home by locally-based designer Rajiv Saini. The project, which spans an impressive 8,000 sq feet, including a large-scale terrace overlooking the city skyline, was a challenge in terms of bringing together the disparate apartment interior designs into a cohesive, light-filled whole.

Explore the Mumbai apartments’ transformation

Ena de Silva House by Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka

In 1960, when Ena de Silva and her husband Osmund were casting about for an architect to build their family home on a small plot they’d just bought in Colombo, Sri Lanka, her friend, the landscaper Bevis Bawa, suggested his younger brother, Geoffrey, who had just started practising. De Silva, a bona fide aristocrat from Kandy in central Sri Lanka, hesitated. She’d seen the architect around town in his Rolls-Royce, his blond tresses and silk scarf fluttering in the wind, and had been decidedly unimpressed. Dilettante, she famously thought. To her surprise, she and Bawa hit it off, and the pair became lifelong friends and collaborators.

Discover Ena de Silva house’s remarkable preservation story

Villa Baizeau by Le Corbusier, Tunisia

Think of Carthage, and modernist architecture is unlikely to come to mind. Yet Villa Baizeau – Le Corbusier's only project in Africa – is located right here, in the historic suburb of the Tunisian capital, just steps from its impressive Roman ruins and brilliant blue seas. An exhibition in 32bis, a multistorey cultural space in downtown Tunis, earlier in 2024 aimed to bring the story of this lesser-known Le Corbusier project to the wider public. Locally based architect Chacha Atallah was the driving force behind the show, curated by architectural historian Roberto Gargiani and supported by art platform La Boîte. 'It went from being a private home to a property that became part of the presidential palace precinct so it has an air of mystery about it.'

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Chu Ming Silveira House, Brazil

A previously unseen house by Chu Ming Silveira formed the backdrop for this summer's ABERTO art and design exhibition in the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo. The brutalist architecture home, which has never been published or opened to the public, was created in the early 1970s by the visionary Asian Brazilian architect and designer – whose work remains largely unknown outside the country's borders. With its bold concrete and glass structure, the house was crafted to symbolise a vision for the home of the future, at the time of its design – bringing together a powerful aesthetic with functionality.

Explore the Chu Ming Silveira house

Northcote House by David Leggett and Paul Loh, Australia

One neighbour refers to Northcote House as the ‘opera’ one. Accessed from an unassuming laneway in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, it couldn’t be more different – in style, size, situation – to Australia’s more famous opera building, nearly 900km away in Sydney. Perhaps the home’s cantilevered, timber-strutted awning initiated the analogy – a grand gesture on a pint-sized block behind a row of shops. Designed by architects David Leggett and Paul Loh as their own home, the house was years in the making and has received numerous accolades since its completion earlier this year, including an award from the Australian Institute of Architects.

Explore Northcote House