Once regarded as Australia’s unloved ugly duckling, especially when compared to its more glamorous siblings Sydney and Melbourne, Perth is all grown up and turning heads.
The new 74-room Alex Hotel is a masterful expression of the city’s changed fortunes. Local architect Space Agency has turned a corner plot in the midst of the Cultural Centre and the entertainment quarter Northbridge into an eye-catching low-rise of bright spacious rooms, while Sydney-based interiors studio Arent & Pyke have added a light palette of colours and mixed textures. Patchwork rugs, mid-century furniture, locally crafted pots, folksy wall hangings and raw concrete surfaces gently set off Beltrami linen, Bemboka blankets and Sodashi toiletries.
The rooftop terrace offers views of downtown Perth, while the Shadow Wine Bar downstairs – a mood-lit den of perfectly chilled vintages from local vineyards – should end an afternoon’s tour of the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts next door.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
50 James Street
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
-
New tech dedicated to home health, personal wellness and mapping your metricsWe round up the latest offerings in the smart health scene, from trackers for every conceivable metric from sugar to sleep, through to therapeutic furniture and ultra intelligent toothbrushes
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week'Tis the season for eating and drinking, and the Wallpaper* team embraced it wholeheartedly this week. Elsewhere: the best spot in Milan for clothing repairs and outdoor swimming in December
-
How Stephen Burks Man Made is bringing the story of a centuries-old African textile to an entirely new audienceAfter researching the time-honoured craft of Kuba cloth, designers Stephen Burks and Malika Leiper have teamed up with Italian company Alpi on a dynamic new product
-
Lose track of time at a retro-futuristic listening bar in MelbourneLB’s Record Bar is a cinematic sanctuary designed for lingering and listening
-
Has the ice cream parlour come of age?A global wave of architecture studios is treating the scoop as spectacle, turning parlours into immersive social spaces
-
The Calile Hotel is an urban resort reframing BrisbaneA seven-storey refuge in Fortitude Valley, The Calile Hotel bridges tropical retro with urban polish, elevating Brisbane’s hospitality landscape
-
Mondrian makes waves at Burleigh Heads with a striking Australian debutMondrian Gold Coast emerges as a sculptural new anchor for Burleigh Heads, pairing surf-side glamour with global polish
-
Rediscover a classic midcentury hotel in SydneyFK leads a major renovation of the landmark Sofitel Sydney Wentworth hotel, pairing 1960s modernism with an elevated, Australian-minded reset
-
Wallpaper* checks in at The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter: ‘a lush restaurant with rooms’In Sydney’s Paddington, chef Josh Niland opens the 14-bedroom luxury hotel alongside his pioneering restaurant
-
Book a brutalist one-room wonder Down Under, the Vipp Tunnel in TasmaniaThe Danish design brand's bookable showcases arrive in the southern hemisphere, thanks to the vision of Tasmanian architectural firm Room 11
-
Wallpaper* checks in at The Eve Hotel Sydney: a lush urban escapeA new Sydney hotel makes a bold and biophilic addition to a buzzing neighbourhood that’s on the up