Post Page - Page 3 of 5 - Explorio

Anantara Golden Triangle: A Safari Lodge Built Into the Jungle

Asia

Anantara Golden Triangle: A Jungle Retreat in Thailand

There is a point in northern Thailand where three countries end at once. Thailand, Myanmar, Laos — the borders dissolve into the Mekong River below. Anantara Golden Triangle sits on the ridge above it, watching all three. Designed Around the Edge of a Continent Landscape architect Bill Bensley redesigned this property around one idea: let the terrain do the work. The resort sits within 160 acres of bamboo forest on a hillside above Chiang Saen. Nothing competes with that view. Everything is positioned toward it. The interiors draw from Lanna culture — the historic

06/25/2026 No Comments

Europe

Acro Suites Crete: Organic Design on the Cliffs

Acro comes from the ancient Greek akros. It means on the edge. That’s not a metaphor here. The hotel is built into a cliff on the north coast of Crete, and nearly every room watches the Aegean from above it. Designed to Sit at the Edge The architecture draws from the island’s own cliffside vernacular — terracing volumes, stone surfaces, the way mass meets light at the edge of water. The palette is earthy: raw stone, ancient wood from Mount Athos, Egyptian marble. Nothing was brought in to contrast with the landscape. Everything was chosen to

06/25/2026 No Comments

Aqua Dome hotel exterior at dusk in Längenfeld, Ötztal valley, Austria

Europe

AQUA DOME Austria: Futuristic Spa in the Alps

Some hotels have mountain views. The Aqua Dome Austria is the mountain view. Set in the Ötztal valley in Längenfeld, Tyrol, it was designed to sit inside the landscape rather than on top of it. The building stretches low and horizontal, its lines following the valley floor — then three outdoor thermal pools extend outward, cantilevered above the terrain, with nothing between you and the peaks. The Architecture It is deliberately futuristic. Sharp forms, curved surfaces, geometric volumes. The contrast against the raw alpine backdrop is intentional. It doesn’t try to look like a chalet. It looks like

06/24/2026 No Comments

Desert Rock Resort Wadi Rum Jordan — rooms carved into rose-red sandstone cliffs

Asia

Desert Rock Resort: A Hotel Built Into the Mountains

Some hotels sit in a landscape. This one is the landscape. Desert Rock Resort in Wadi Rum, Jordan is carved directly into rose-red sandstone cliffs. Not positioned near them. Not inspired by them. Built into them — so that the rock face becomes your wall, your ceiling, and sometimes your floor. The Architecture The resort’s rooms are embedded in the cliff like chambers cut from the earth itself. Local sandstone is everywhere: rough-textured, warm, geological. Natural light filters through narrow windows that frame slices of desert sky. At certain hours, the walls glow orange. The structure follows

06/23/2026 No Comments

Asia

Al Maha Desert Resort Dubai: A Bedouin-Inspired Escape

Most hotels try to escape their surroundings. Al Maha was built to disappear into them. Set inside the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve — about an hour from the city’s skyline — this resort doesn’t compete with the landscape. It reads like part of it. Low-lying, spread across the dunes, designed to echo a Bedouin encampment that has always been there. The Architecture The resort’s 42 suites follow a language taken directly from desert nomadic tradition. Each one sits independently, with a tented roof that curves low over the structure. It’s not a gimmick. The form is deliberate

06/19/2026 No Comments

MOOONS Vienna black facade with circular windows, Wieden district

Europe

MOOONS Vienna: The Hotel Built Around a Circular Window

Vienna has no shortage of grand hotels. Baroque facades, gilded lobbies, history layered over history. MOOONS doesn’t compete with any of that. It does something different — it looks up. The concept starts with the moon. The building’s black facade is punctuated by large circular windows, each one a full disc of light framing a slice of the city. From the street, it reads like a bold statement. From inside the room, it becomes something quieter — a portal, a framed view, a reason to stay near the window. The Architecture of MOOONS Vienna Munich-based studio

06/12/2026 No Comments

Asia

Mara River Safari Lodge, Bali: Safari Hotel with Wildlife Views

You wake up, open the curtains, and a zebra walks past. This is Bali — but not the Bali you expect. That’s not a dream sequence. That’s breakfast prep at Mara River Safari Lodge — the only hotel in Bali where the view from your room is an African savanna. The Architecture: A Safari Lodge Built Inside Bali This is not a hotel that simply uses safari imagery. It was designed as a place-within-a-place — a full African lodge, built inside a 40-hectare safari park carved from Bali’s rice paddies. The design journey is part of the

06/08/2026 No Comments

Europe

Glass Igloo Finland: Sleeping Under the Sky at Kakslauttanen

Most hotels frame the view. This one removes the frame entirely. At Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in Saariselkä, Lapland, you sleep inside a glass igloo — a small, heated structure where the ceiling is not a ceiling. It is sky. On a clear night in autumn or winter, the northern lights move through it while you lie still. That is the architecture doing its job. A Structure Built to Disappear The glass igloos at Kakslauttanen are not decorative. They are a specific solution to a specific problem: how do you build an enclosure that feels like no enclosure

06/08/2026 No Comments

Europe

Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Zaandam: Iconic Dutch Design

What if a neighborhood could become a building? That’s the question architect Wilfried van Winden answered in 2010. The result is a 12-story hotel tower in Zaandam that looks like someone carefully stacked an entire Dutch village — roof by roof, window by window — until it touched the sky. The Architecture The Inntel Hotels Amsterdam Zaandam is not trying to blend in. It was never meant to. WAM Architecten designed the exterior as a collage of nearly 70 traditional Zaanse house facades, each one different. Green wooden cladding. Steep pitched rooftops. Small-paned windows arranged in patterns

05/23/2026 No Comments

Asia

Private Jet Villa Uluwatu: A Boeing 737 Above Bali

Some buildings ask you to slow down. This one asks you to look twice. The Private Jet Villa in Uluwatu, Bali, is exactly what it sounds like — a decommissioned Boeing 737 converted into a private villa. Parked on a clifftop above the Indian Ocean, it’s one of those stays where the building is the experience. The Architecture The fuselage serves as the main living and sleeping space. The cockpit becomes a sitting area with a view most pilots only see from altitude. The wings stretch outward, no longer carrying anything through the air — just holding

05/14/2026 No Comments