New Hotels 3

The long-awaited follow-up to New Hotels presents a showcase of some of the most recent and inventive projects by the greatest names in hotel design. Architecturally speaking, a hotel presents the opportunity to challenge the aesthetic uniformity that currently plagues the design of public places. The search for a misunderstood modernity has spawned a crop of dismal clones all over the planet, in no way lightening the dreary burden of endless preconceived ideas afflicting the traditional hotel industry. Hoteliers have quickly recognized that ongoing changes in taste and needs within society call for a "live or die" approach to hotel service as a priority objective. The concept of "luxury" is continually evolving; it no longer means providing ostentatious spaces, full of glitz and chandeliers. Today's visitor wants to feel different simply because of where he or she is staying, which means that nowadays luxury is a matter of finding that sought after, special difference, such as cultural centers inside the hotel, 24-hour bars, personal assistants rather than receptionists, and varied types of cuisine. According to this vision, the hotels that are visited in New Hotels 3 are the ultimate expression of this new conception of luxury. Each one has its own personality born of merging innovation with local character. Without the former there is no progress; without the latter we run the risk of fading into that great morass of inconspicuous absurdity.