Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona has a superb address on the city’s famous Passeig de Gràcia, near the Casa Batlló by Gaudi with its fabulous façade. Our new luxury hotel is situated in an elegant mid 20th century building, recreated with a highly stylised contemporary interior by Spanish born designer Patricia Urquiola.

Barcelona is an enormously stylish city, overflowing with fashionable boutiques and chic retailers, particularly on the Passeig de Gràcia, where the hotel is located. Nearby Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona are the famous Gaudi Houses, Casa Batlló and La Pedrera and not far away his grand opus, the Sagrada Familia church.

www.mandarinoriental.com/barcelona

The New Rest collection from Vondom was inspired by Origami, the Japanese art based in the folding of paper in order to get different forms and by the thinking line “Less is more”. The composition is formed by an armchair, sofa, and table, of which modular structure allows you to adapt them freely to any purpose in any space.

The manufacture technique is the rotomoulding, focused on a technology process that guarantees the maximum quality taking care of every detail. Rest shows the essence from its creators always loyal to elegance, beauty and exclusivity as the total adaption to customers.

From geometrical defined forms, along with the dynamic, elegant and lightness features, Rest is a collection that offers the maximum comfort to its users and is integrated perfectly in avant-garde architecture, thanks to its contemporary design from Spanish architects Joaquín Torres and Rafael Llamazares of A-cero Studio.

www.vondom.com

The Pantone Hotel, now open in Brussels Belgium, is located near Avenue Louise, the glamorous shopping and business district.

Impeccably designed by Belgian interior designer Michel Penneman and architect Oliver Hannaert, The Pantone Hotel, showcases the color of emotion with a distinctive hue on each colors guest floor. There are a total of 59 rooms and suites in seven different color palettes. Guest rooms also feature unique photography by Belgian photographer Victor Levy.

www.pantonehotel.com

Tokyo based architecture studio Nendo of Japanese architect Oki Sato have created the new concept for 24 Issey Miyake Store. Based on the concept of the Japanese convenience store, 24 Issey Miyake shops combine inexpensive prices, a large variety of colors and frequent changes in the product lineup. The latest shop, located in Shibuya’s Parco shopping complex also includes a store that specially features Miyake’s Bilbao bag.

www.nendo.jp/en

American designer Karim Rashid presented ‘Smart-ologic Corian® living’ an interior design project he created in collaboration with DuPont™ Corian® during Milan Design Week 2010.

The sustainable housing concept, takes advantage of the versatility and sensory quality of the DuPont ™ Corian® material, in all the areas of the home – kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room and garden.

Features ‘futuristic types’ of DuPont™ Corian® which have been made with environmentally sustainable bio-sourced components and recycled materials, displaying the company’s efforts to decrease its environmental footprint. The project also marked the first presentation of DuPont™ Zodiaq® quartz surfaces, which Rashid has used in designing some of the furniture.

www2.dupont.com

Australian architect Matt Gibson has designed a shop interior for the fashion retailer Fame Agenda, located in the Docklands of Melbourne, Australia.

Involving concepts of ‘transparency and illusion’ and bringing customers minds in-between interior and exterior this store plays on the perspective of the ‘arcade’. A random and organic set of arches inspired by Thomas Heatherwick’s sculptural works merge to form a cave like enclosure from within the confines of the rectilinear shell. Providing intimacy and protection from the elevated & wind blown Docklands promenade the organic arches intend to shift the visitor inwards toward the end of the awkward ‘L ‘shaped plan & at the same time provide merchandising benches, walls and ceiling. The arches partially cover existing structural piers & terminate with mirrored cladding behind the sales counter seemingly extending the space and encouraging a play on perspective.

www.fameagenda.com

Sosushi is the first sushi franchising network in Italy. While Sosushi prides itself on their extrovert menu, they also take great pride in the design of each restaurant. This is very evident in the Turin, Italy restaurant designed by UAU Architects. Located deep in the city center of this historical urban city, UAU was challenged to create a modern and trendy space within this small old stationery store. The result is beautiful.

The shop is finished with the amazing Plexwood with matte white and magenta furniture to give an illusion of a spacious interior. The biggest challenge of the project was to optimize the space “in the deep research of order and refinement that distinguish all our architectures, not avoiding pragmatism.”

UAU was able to maximize this small space by working around the perimeter. They created benches and shelves that extended deep into the corners, which in turn, eliminated many awkward nooks and crannies and made the restaurant feel very open.

www.sosushi.it

Turkish design studio Autoban, have designed a retail store in the Nisantasi neighborhood of Istanbul, for the fashion brand V2K Designers.

Located in the centre of Istanbul’s classiest shopping district, a striking angular entrance welcomes visitors to browse designer pieces by top brands from all over the world. A large angular column reaches up and past a mezzanine floor, creating an impressive space at the entrance to the store, while a grid like wall of light bulbs down the side of the store provides a powerful banner for slogans which can be modified as desired.

www.v2kdesigners.com.tr

Italian architect Simone Micheli has completed the design of the Atomic wellness centre at the Exedra Milan Hotel for Boscolo Hotels in Milan, Italy.

This work triggers a sense of heady emotional dizziness in the visitor, it is destined to become a milestone as for future international wellness centers. This is the result of architecture inside the architecture which enables the users to enter a unique 3D multisensorial dimension. This is a 3D manifesto resulting from a possible and conscious union among architecture, sensoriality, wellness, from the synergy among highly effective basic furniture, plasitc and fluid shapes and the personal experience of the guest walking in this place surrounded by a dreamlike scenario.

This is an interactive, hybrid, breathtaking and iconoclastic place where all features are distinctive as witnessed by the reception area, passages, men’s and women’s changing rooms, treatment cabins, “humid” area with sauna, turkish bath, showers,ice maker, relax area and by the large swimming pool sporting multiple water effects and hydromassage jets. All the above mentioned features aim at accompanying the visitor on this dreamlike trip by lulling and involving him.

www.boscolohotels.com

Designed by Jason Phillips for The Phillips Collection. Cloud Chairs are made from high-quality fiberglass reinforced with a stonecast inner wall and work great outdoors and in. Available in white, bronze or black in both a lounge chair and loveseat in early 2010.

www.jasonphillipsdesign.com/