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The most interesting books on hotels and such
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Five-star hotels, ancient noble palazzi converted into contemporary guest houses, museum facilities crammed with artworks, and tree houses where you can stay overnight... There are many different types of hotel projects, with varying features and difficulties. And for each there is one or more books telling its story
The supreme place of transit, since with rare exceptions no one stays in them indefinitely, the hotel is a place where people and experiences meet. “People come, people go” were the words that opened and closed the movie Grand Hotel starring Greta Garbo and John Barrymore. And often when they leave, people are different from when they entered.
In the collective imagination the hotel is a symbol of travel as a physical and sometimes even inner movement, but the world of hospitality is also of great importance for architecture and design professionals and for companies active in the furniture sector. For the former, the design of an accommodation facility is an important test bench on which to experiment with innovative ideas and solutions that can then be applied to other areas. For the latter, hospitality is a leading market segment and a customer base that has been developing rapidly in recent years.
We also noticed this during the latest edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, where there were numerous offerings devoted to the sector. For all of them, we have selected a series of books that delve into the different types of hotels, including some that have emerged in relatively recent times, seeking to analyze the ties between architects and the places where they choose to stay as clients, or simply offer a roundup of projects in which luxury and design are perfectly combined.
Culture: The Leading Hotels of the World, by Spencer Bayley, Monacelli Press
Travel is a cultural experience above all. This is the assumption underlying the second volume of the series produced by the renowned publishing house Monacelli Press, now part of the Phaidon galaxy, together with the platform The Leading Hotels of the World, with its over 400 luxury hotels spread around the world, and the New York-based company The Slowdown. The 80 five-star hotels selected for this coffee-table book and portrayed by international photographers are not just beautiful. They have a close bond with their setting and actively promote local art, architecture or gastronomy. Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair, London, for example, is the oldest in the city and is still considered an icon of British style, the embodiment of “a certain something.” As Pico Iyer writes in his preface: “culture is as hard to define as ‘beauty’ or ‘taste’, but we recognise it when we see it: it is that hidden treasure that goes beyond simply seeing things and gives us a new pair of eyes.”
Where Architects Sleep, by Sarah Miller, Phaidon
This guide published in the year of the pandemic by Phaidon has already become a minor classic. We can turn the title into a question that we have all asked ourselves sooner or later: Where do famous architects sleep? What kind of accommodation does someone choose when traveling on business or pleasure, when in everyday life they (also) design the most eye-catching lobbies and the most sumptuous suites on the planet, reflecting on what devices to use to enable other people to have a restful stay? The book by the journalist Sarah Miller presents the advice of 250 of the most renowned designers, from Daniel Libeskind to Shigeru Ban, Norman Foster and Kengo Kuma. A curiosity: the most frequently mentioned address is that of the 7123 Hotel in Vals, Switzerland. Hardly a surprise, since the resort shares spaces with the spa complex designed by Peter Zumthor, a well-known destination for pilgrimages by architecture and design buffs.
Be My Guest. Contemporary Welcoming, by Raul Betti, Elisa Pegorin and Greta Ruffino, Rizzoli
To say that Aldo Parisotto and Massimo Formenton know the world of hospitality well would be an understatement. With their practice Parisotto + Formenton Architetti studio, founded in 1990, the two professionals have designed luxury accommodation facilities and resorts immersed in some of the most fascinating Italian landscapes that range from the Ligurian Riviera all the way to the Dolomites. A recently published book traces this strand of their career through six emblematic creations, in which the harmonious fusion with the setting is a decisive feature. These include the award-winning boutique hotel Casa di Langa, overlooking hectares of Piedmontese vineyards, the Capitolo Riviera hotel in Genoa Nervi (formerly Hotel Astor) renovated so as not to diminish its brutalist allure, and an early 19th-century country residence transformed into a guest house for a winery in the hills of Arquà Petrarca, in the Veneto.
Passalacqua. A love letter to Lake Como, Assouline
Voted the world’s best hotel in 2023 by the compilers of The World’s 50 Best Hotels, a group of 580 anonymous experts, the Passalacqua at Moltrasio is a place rich in history. In fact, Napoleon Bonaparte, Vincenzo Bellini and Winston Churchill apparently slept in the 18th-century lakeside villa that houses it. Those who wish to know its secrets, and admire the spectacular terraced gardens on the lake or the interiors furnished in eclectic style with Fortuny fabrics on the walls, marble and Murano glass chandeliers by Barovier & Toso, will find everything they are looking for in the elegant volume Passalacqua. A Love Letter to Lake Como, issued in June in the series devoted to hospitality by the Parisian publisher Assouline, with photos by Daria Reina and illustrations by Andrea Ferolla.
