матрациThey call it the most fashionable design hotel in Vienna!
At the crossroads of a new Vienna, where art, fashion and design emerge, embedded between the classical buildings of the Vienna State Opera House and the Karlskirche, is the ultimate boutique/design hotel, The
Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel. Not only casual, it has all the feel of a ‘home-from-home’ urban hideaway and plays host to many artists, bands, DJ’s and DJane’s, cineastes and aficionados for the different events the city of Vienna offers. Opened in 2007, this hotel is laid-back luxe at its best – offering casual and contemporary elegance.
The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel charms the most discerning and sophisticated traveler, the weekend-globetrotter, the trendy-hunting creative, looking for casual luxury, with the 68 rooms and suites, where modern and classical furnishings create an ambiance of hip exuberance. The aroma restaurant ‘at eight’ and the vodka bar ‘Drings’ do complete the picture of this hotel : the true epicenter of today’s Vienna.
TIP : try their ‘The Ring Day Spa’
“Lying on a starlit terrace in Marrakech, beautiful and damned, (…) assembled as if for eternity where the curtain of the past seemed
to lift before an extraordinary future” – Yves Saint Laurent
Destination weddings talked about for many years(or generations) to come – from weddings in remote Bhutanese dzongs accessible by an hour-long trek
officiated by Bhutanese monks and attended by people from nearby villages to glorious weddings in Ottoman yalis and palaces with the picturesque Bosphorus
as a backdrop. Scouting for the most inspired settings- dramatic cliff-side chapels with glass bottoms, a hundred Maasai warriors serenading the
guests with the magical Ngorongoro Crater as a backdrop or the re-enactment of a courtship ritual on horseback in Kyrgyzstan. Every detail- from the food to the
wedding decorations, the photography to the entertainment, will be planned in consultation with the couple.
Friends and family who’d come to share in the joy of the couple will encounter a similarly meticulous attention to detail- from individual dietary preferences to
customized tours pre- and post-event, decadent parties and stylish cocktail receptions- Talitha Getty-inspired togs optional.
Our luxury honeymoons are every bit as spectacular and inspired- safaris featuring star beds where you’ll see the night stars, particularly brilliant due to your proximity
to the Equator, alternately waking up to views of the boundless Serengeti and Patagonia’s dramatic Paine Massif in lodges defining standards of luxury in remote
places or exploring the stunning juxtaposition of tropical forests and cool Himalayan climes of the Burmese Himalayas.
Image courtesy of &beyond.
Luxury adventure travel- as far as real estate go,( or rather, the lack of it), luxury adventure travel connotes a sense of displacement, a lack of possessions and the true luxury that does not hamper mobility. Luxury adventure travel in Mongolia with the distinctive Mongolian gers
Luxury adventure travel Mongolia
The themes of luxury and adventure travel aren’t as divergent as it’s been made out to be- whilst the true (and best, according to Chatwin), nomads, are able to withstand the most basic of living conditions- travel in the modern world is a temporary affair, couched against the comforting knowledge that no matter how bad things get, there’ll always be the luxury of home to return to at the end of the journey. The most famous adventurers of modern times are almost always financially well-off and Chatwin, despite his championing of the basic lifestyles of the nomads, found it fit to complain in his diaries:
“18th day of disasters. Wrecked my plans. (…) Feeling very hard done by. At least the sun is shining. It rained earlier. Difficulties of Patagonia. Want a salad. Cannot face any more meat. Dust in your eyes”- from the thesis of Jonathan Michael Chatwin, 2008.
Have not found any shit on Thesiger though…
A Tribute to Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass, (1917-2008) designer and ardent design philosopher, worked throughout his career to shake the static ways in which people thought about design and to try to create a body of work outside of what he thought were “hierarchic bureaucratic structures of industry.” The influential architect died of heart failure last month at his home in Milan. He was 90.
Although Sottsass was born in Austria, he studied at the Turin Polytechnic and is identified as one of the major forces behind the immense wave of design that began flowing out of Italy after the war. His main interest was in creating objects that challenged the icons of Italian design that he felt functioned in terms of status and money. By constantly questioning and rethinking ideas and processes, Sottsass’ work teeters on the very edge of the anti-design movement. He never ceased to imply the importance of design in society, however, stating that, “to me design…is a way of discussing life. It is a way of discussing society, politics, eroticism, food and even design.”
So many everyday things could bring you into an intimate physical connection with this aster’s work and inventive mind. At home, the bed, taps, door handles could all have been designed by him, so could the kitchen furniture, desks and chairs, and even light switches to choose from. This is the man, who brought design into our everyday life.
Sottsass showed that it was possible to understand design as a cultural as well as a technical issue. When he designed the Valentine portable typewriter for Olivetti in 1969, with the British designer Perry King, he was able to turn a piece of office equipment into a desirable object by understanding that there are emotions involved as well as ergonomics in the way that we use and understand our possessions.
The Valentine was fashioned out of bright red plastic, with twin splashes of vivid orange for the spools; turning it from a machine into a kind of toy. As he put it himself, “the sort of thing to keep lonely poets company on Sundays in the country”. Four decades later, Jonathan Ive did the same for Apple, with the iPod, turning technology that grew out of office equipment into a desirable possession.
Like his father, also called Ettore, Sottsass saw himself first and foremost as an architect. Almost all Italian designers trained as architects, and too many of them want to go back to designing buildings, even though they are manifestly better sticking to the scale of cutlery and chairs. Sottsass was an exception in that he really was a highly gifted architect, even though he was entirely outside the mainstream.
In architecture, he sought to imbue emotion and delight as well. The Mayer-Schwarz gallery in Beverly Hills, with its dramatic doorway made of irregular folds and jagged angles. He even managed to build an apartment in the unlikely setting of Albany in London for Johnny Pigozzi, the celebrity photographer.
The Memphis Movement, started in 1981 by Sottsass and his friends, broke down barriers between high and low art, between assumptions of “good” and ‘bad” taste, and raised the question of access to art design by people of all economic backgrounds. They created furniture and other objects with bright colours, slick surfaces, off shapes and sizes. In an interview with Pure Commentary, he said, “We tried to design without thinking of the conditions the “industrial culture” had imposed and is still imposing with all the possible means, legal or illegal, to define what is “good” and “bad” taste.
Ettore Sottsass was a great man. An icon whose design challenged the tenets of modern design. He propelled functionality with design and made it a success, allowing normal people like everyone of us to come into contact with good art everyday.
http://www.urbanespaces.com/sottsass.html –An avant garde design modern bungalow by Sottsass.
The Red Dragon
Art is a reflection of society. Buildings are built according to the ideals of the flourishing empire and paintings may portray the type of life people envision. With the rise of a new social or cultural movement, new buildings are erected and those of the past demolished. Hence, to understand the past or to know the future, we can turn to art and architecture.
With the liberalization and rapid development of the 1.3 billion people nation, China is turning heads of many around the world. China as a superpower commands respect, admiration as well as fear in the eyes of many politicians. Businessmen are now all jumping onto the Chinese bandwagon, to get their slice of the pie as the Chinese economy grows exponentially. They are not the only ones, artists and architects are looking towards the Red Dragon once again.
Chinese Art is making a comeback and it is now bigger and bolder. Contemporary Chinese interior design maintains its penchant for details but includes new and modern elements like steel. The use of bold colours—lime green, sunshine yellow, neon pink replacing the traditional wooden finishing—signifies the great leap forward for China once again. This exciting movement is certainly worth paying close attention to.
Old vs. New
Traditional Chinese architecture focuses on the delicate details of each piece of furniture. This can be seen in the elaborate wood carvings of dragons and phoenixes. The meticulous artist pays attention to all the elements then intricately crafts his art as a whole. The final product, an article that is continuous, where there is a seamless transition from lines to curves. The look is extremely polished.
While the old Chinese design may prove to be a little stuffy for most of us, contemporary Chinese architecture is exciting. A greater mix of materials and colours brings life to Chinese art, transforming it from its old fashioned self.
Traditional floral patterns are toned down by reducing its design complexity to give a slightly more neutral look. By painting these patterns on a lime green wall or lacquer it over a brown wall, an eclectic effect is created. Who would imagine that Chinese art can be combined with sleek modern edges and clean lines of steel cabinets?
By increasing the size of the Chinese daybed, yoke back armchairs and console tables, then painting them a pink panther or sunshine yellow, the contemporary Chinese furniture can bring life to any neutral tone house.
Chinese Art
Chinese Art can be divided into periods by the ruling dynasties of China and the changing technologies. Politics, education, philosophy and religion also influence the direction of art.
From the Shang Dynasty focus on the clarity of details, to Song’s emphasis on spiritual elements in subtle expressions of landscape and Ming’s perfection in colour painting, traditions were followed strictly to maintain the prestige and culture of the prevailing periods. Modern Chinese art however, is said to have departed from the avant-garde movement’s focus on social and political change. Critiques claim that many artists are dropping political or social themes altogether to create works that appeal to the aesthetic sense of wealthy buyers. Mao Ze Dong’s portraits are now created in dark and cynical hues that are incompatible with his image at the peak of his career.
This emphasis on pretty pictures in the 1990s however, reflects the change in cultural make up of the society towards the goals of wealth and economic power and the formation of a white collar and commercial culture. The likes of Xu Bing (leader of Chinese avant-garde art), Huang Yong Ping and Cai Quo Qiang among many others were thought to be disregarded by the public.
The changing economy provided contemporary artists new themes despite the foreseen demise of social commentary—the desire to get rich quickly, competitiveness, widening income gap, consumerism, leisure. The new ideology in China led to Political Pop and Cynical Realism styles.
The focus on portraits in modern Chinese art also expounds on the themes of individualism, desire and reality showing how people comprehend and reconstruct the roles amid the confusion of the city life. There is some sort of abstract qualities to the portraits with certain alien like qualities that varies from blank expressions to wide eye astonishment.
Avant-garde themes are still favoured in contemporary Chinese art; it is just that the forms are prettier, more personal and private in subject matter and more professional in technique. Social commentary is still alive.
Where to get Contemporary Chinese Art
Linda Gallery—established in 1990, specialises in contemporary Chinese art and Indonesian paintings. he gallery has held numerous exhibitions, featuring works by famous Chinese Contemporary artists, Indonesian maestros, Indo–European artists, as well as other South East Asian artists. #01-03 Block 15 Dempsey Road, Tanglin Village.
Jasmine Fine Arts—Specialises in contemporary Chinese art and holds regular exhibitions. It has exhibited works by Zeng Fangzhi (in collaboration with the Singapore Art Museum) and Yang Jinsong. 290 Orchard Road, #05-25 Paragon.
Kwan Hua Art Gallery—Offers a good selection of Oriental and contemporary Chinese art, including thoe by Bai Jin Shun, Zeng Jie and Zhang Xian Ming. Prices range from 1-6k. 19 Tanglin Road, #02-61 Tanglin Shopping Centre
Ode To Art—One of the largest galleries in Singapore. 252North Bridge Road, Raffles City Shopping Centre #01-36E/F
Singapore Art Museum (SAM)—Has exhibitions featuring works of Chinese contemporary artists. Zeng Fangzhi has been featured previously. The exhibition, entitled Idealism, showcased 36 major works including his celebrated series Hospital, Meat, Mask and Portraits. 71 Bras Basah Road
Soobin Art International—One of the first local galleries to carry contemporary Chinese art. The gallery has represented some top artists like Yue Minjun, Wang Guanyi, Zhang Xiaogang, Ye Yong Qing etc. While the gallery has sold its collections by these famous artists, it continues to promote new artists from places like Szechuan and Chengdu. 140 Hill Street #01-10/11/12 MICA Building.
Luxury travel to China effectively introduces you to the trendiest art galleries, the best restaurants and insider access whilst being based in the most luxurious hotels.