For our annual Travel Issue, we’ve cast off with a degree of brio reflective of the industry’s ‘return to normal’, compiling a series of journeys that, while considering the impact achieving that sense of freedom involves, offers good reasons why we should never give up the urge to adventure.
Ho Chi Minh City
So this year’s issue takes us to Ho Chi Minh City, where a turbulent history has given way to a conurbation growing at incredible speed, under the protective gaze of insightful and powerful local voices that reflect its new-found energy. A similar story is spelt out in Adam Štěch’s tour of Caracas’ surprising wellspring of modernist buildings – a vernacular that survives the vicissitudes of the Venezuelan capital’s recent past. Marrakech provides the timeless backdrop to our fashion story, its Moorish architecture blending seamlessly with this season’s most striking silhouettes.
Elsewhere, we visit the Comblé Bar by Shiro Kuramata, in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo – a city not short of top-tier landmark boîtes – tour the all-new, suites-only Emory hotel in London’s Knightsbridge with its architects, RSHP, and check into Switzerland’s Chenot Palace in search of hot wraps and cold showers – a necessary balm to a life of constant movement.
Canopy House, a private retreat in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest by Studio MK27
And for those who lust after the lure of the home from home, we bring you a brace of remotely located properties that uniquely complement their surroundings, whether that’s the canopy of a tropical rainforest or an archipelago in Canada’s northwest.
Finally, and worthy of a ‘flight announcement’ all of its own, Navigator – a name from Wallpaper’s own storied past – returns as our new back-page city guide. For the June issue, we felt it only right to start with Cannes, the Riviera playground where the world’s film-goers flock each May. Stay warm, travel well and enjoy the issue.
Bill Prince
Editor-in-Chief