Art Hotels

Amanera sits on a bluff on the Dominican Republic's north coast, where the land drops away to Playa Grande. The setting does most of the work. Casitas are spaced along the ridge and angled so that each one keeps its own stretch of horizon, and the walk between them runs through dry coastal forest rather than corridor.

Materials are the argument here. Coralline stone, dark tropical hardwood, deep overhangs, rooms that open along a full wall instead of through a window. Several casitas carry a private pool cut into the terrace. The architecture is consistent enough that it reads as a single continuous gesture rather than a collection of buildings.

A Robert Trent Jones Sr. golf course runs beside the property, laid out along the same cliff line. Beyond that, the resort keeps its facilities quiet: a spa, a small number of dining rooms, and a long set of stairs down to the beach.

Kengo Kuma wrapped this Beijing hotel in green-tinted glass, and the result is a building that changes colour depending on the hour and the weather. It stands in Sanlitun, a district better known for shopping and nightlife, and it deliberately refuses the usual hotel signals — no grand porte-cochère, no obvious lobby.

Inside, a tall timber-lined atrium runs the height of the building. Contemporary art is shown there on a rotating basis, which means the entrance hall is never quite the same twice. Guest accommodation is arranged as open studios: a single volume with a soaking tub and a wardrobe wall, rather than a bedroom plus bathroom.

A stainless-steel pool occupies the basement, lit low enough that it reads as a dark room with water in it. Restaurants at street level are used heavily by people who are not staying, which keeps the ground floor from feeling like a hotel lobby at all.

Singapore practice WOHA designed this property on the arid southern tip of Bali, and the design responds to that dryness rather than fighting it. Walls are built from local lava rock stacked without mortar into deep, striated courses. Roofs are laid with volcanic rock and planted, so the buildings sit low against the plateau.

Villas occupy two positions: along the cliff edge above the Indian Ocean, and inland among low scrub. Each has a private pool and a pavilion open on all sides. The most photographed element is a cantilevered cabana that projects out over the drop, supported from behind so that nothing interrupts the view beneath it.

Environmental performance was designed in from the start — water recovery, local sourcing, planting chosen for the climate — and the property holds independent sustainability certification. Uluwatu temple and the surf breaks along the peninsula are a short drive away.