London architects Sybarite have collaborated with a Japanese fashion giant Onward Holdings to create an authentic Japanese soba noodle restaurant overlooking the River Thames. Located on The Strand, Yen invites diners “to step off the busy street into an all-encompassing Japanese experience” created by the design team using Japanese materiality, design cues and construction techniques. The concept of the design is built around Japanese cultural interpretations of nature and space,

Historic American hotel The Cavalier will reopen in early 2018 after a US$75m (€63m, £56m) restoration. Built in 1927 and overlooking the Atlantic on one of the highest hills in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the hotel was inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate. The property is being redeveloped by Gold Key PHR and will become the latest venue in Marriott’s Autograph Collection. Part of the redevelopment will include a 6,200sq ft

Como Hotels and Resorts is opening its third location in Bali in February 2018, the Como Uma Canggu. With 119 bedrooms, the Como Uma Canggu will be the brand’s 14th location worldwide and will include a Como Shambhala Retreat with seven treatment rooms. Asian-inspired therapies – including the signature Como Shambhala Massage, a deep-tissue massage – will be offered, along with yoga and Pilates classes and personal training at the

Dutch designer Marcel Wanders has blasted minimalist hospitality design trends in an interview with CLADglobal. Wanders – best known for his colourful and often surreal hotel collaborations with the likes of Morgans Hotel Group, Park Hyatt and sbe – argued that architects and designers working in the hotel sector “should add fun and value to people’s lives”. “If you love design enough to give your life to it – studying

The Le Meridien hotel in Cyprus will reopen in March 2018 under the new name Parklane, after an estimated €70m (US$83m, £62m) renovation as part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection. The resort, in Limassol, is well known for its large thalassotherapy facilities, which span 3,000sq m, and include two outdoor and two indoor seawater pools. The new Kalloni Spa will also include 12 treatment rooms and three suites, two of which

An elegant London hotel situated in a converted former bank building has been named the best new hotel in Europe at a ceremony held by the Awards for Hospitality Experience and Design (AHEAD). The Ned hotel, spa and club, with interiors designed by Alice Lund and architecture practice EPR, opened in April 2017. The creative team has transformed the Grade I-listed former Midland Bank Building to include 252 bedrooms, nine

Consultancy, development and management firm GOCO Hospitality has worked on the concept and technical design of the upcoming 2,138sq m (23,013sq ft) spa and wellness area of the 1 Hotel Haitang Bay in Sanya, China. The first Chinese development for 1 Hotels, the 280-bedroom property is being developed in partnership with Sunshine Insurance Group. It is due to open in late 2018. The wellness area will be prominently located just

Hospitality brand Andaz has opened its first hotel in Southeast Asia, the Andaz Singapore. Located within DUO – a large integrated development spread across two sculptural towers in the Ophir-Rochor district – the hotel features 342 contemporary guestrooms, including 26 suites, with floor-to-ceiling windows framing views of the city-state. German architect Ole Scheeren designed the concave skyscrapers, which are 186 and 170m high and clad in a latticework of hexagonal

A new holistic wellbeing destination spa is opening in the Greek Peloponnese next May. Designed to enable health and personal transformation, the Euphoria Retreat will include a spa offering a blend of treatments and experiences using ancient Greek and Chinese philosophies and medicines. Situated in a valley on the edge of the Byzantine town of Mystras, a 13th century Unesco World Heritage Site, Euphoria Retreat has been created in harmony

A ‘performance resort’ and spa are coming to master-planned wellness community Lake Nona, outside of Orlando, Florida, in 2020. The Lake Nona Resort is due to break ground in 2018 and will include a 45,000sq ft spa and fitness campus with in-depth indoor and outdoor programming for all ages and levels. Designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, the eight-storey Lake Nona Resort will be located along the southern shore of Lake Nona,

German architecture firm GRAFT have completed work on a timber hotel and spa hidden in the woodland of Nohfelden, northern Germany. Designed as a product of the surrounding topography, the 12,860sq m (138,400sq ft) Hotel Bostalsee rests above a pair of green hills, overlooking Lake Bostalsee. Guests arrive through oak woodland, with the water hidden from view. The lobby is situated in the natural gap between the hills and reveals

Architect Roberto de Oliveira Castro and interior designer Samuel Amoia have collaborated on a beach resort in Belize, described as “unlike anything travelers have ever seen in the Caribbean”. Located in the hideaway beach town of Placencia, the Itz’ana Resort & Residences occupies 16 miles of a peninsula, with the Caribbean Sea on one side and a lagoon on the other. The new resort, named after the Mayan god of

The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts, a brand of hospitality giant Marriott International, has reopened The Athenee Hotel in Bangkok following an extensive renovation. Formerly known as Plaza Athenee Bangkok, the hotel stands on the grounds of the Kandhavas Palace, the former royal residence of Princess Valaya Alongkorn until her death there in 1938. Interior design firms Vekhin Interior and Bangkok Dec-Con have referenced this regal lineage, taking inspiration from

One of London’s most famous monuments, the Admiralty Arch, is to be converted into a Waldorf Astoria hotel. The iconic building was commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of Queen Victoria, and completed in 1910 by architect Sir Aston Webb – the creator of The Mall and the main facade at Buckingham Palace. Sir Winston Churchill had an office in the Arch when he was First Sea Lord of

The flagship property in hospitality giant Hard Rock’s international empire will be expanded at a cost of US$1.5bn (€1.3bn, £1.1bn), with the addition of a 450ft (137m) high tower shaped like back-to-back guitars. The giant structure will be the centrepiece of the enlarged Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US. Hard Rock International CEO James F. Allen has assembled a large design team – including Klai

Aman has unveiled details of its planned New York property, set to open in 2020 in the heart of Manhattan. Aman New York will be housed in the 1921 Crown Building on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street overlooking Central Park, and will include a three-storey, 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) Aman Spa. The 26-storey Crown Building – designed by architects Warren and Wetmore, who also designed New York’s Grand Central Station

The food and hospitality company founded by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, film producer Meir Teper and Hollywood legend Robert De Niro has officially launched its first European hotel in Shoreditch, London. The Nobu Hotel Shoreditch, located on Willow Street, features 148 bedrooms, a fine dining restaurant, a cocktail lounge and a fitness centre, all set within a strikingly jagged building created by Ben Adams Architects – developing an original vision conceived

It was built as a grandiose home for an 18th-century archbishop, and later became a luxury hotel frequented by the likes of Ronald Reagan, Jacqueline Kennedy and Richard Burton. Now Ireland’s Cashel Palace Hotel is set to be given a new lease of life, courtesy of architecture and design firm ReardonSmith. The building – designed in an Early Georgian style by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, the architect of the Old

Global investment group Nakash Holdings has revealed plans to transform a 13th century prison in Tel Aviv, Israel, into a five-star luxury hotel operated by its Setai hotel brand. The historic coastal site, known as the ‘Kishle’, was originally constructed by the Ottoman Empire as a prison, on a stretch of land that had been home to a fortress during the Crusades. After recently buying the land, Nakash commissioned researchers

David Rockwell’s design studio have completed a Los Angeles hotel that pays homage to the city’s iconic mid-century modern architecture. The 178-bedroom Dream Hollywood Hotel is located on the city’s Selma Avenue, close to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in the shadow of the Hollywood Hills. Rockwell Group and operator Dream Hotels sought to bring something of the glamour of Tinseltown to the hotel, mixed with a dose of

Snøhetta have revealed designs for the international architects' latest leisure project – the first underwater restaurant to open in Europe. Located at the southernmost point of the Norwegian coastline, the restaurant, called Under, will double as an aquarium and marine research centre. Snøhetta's design is inspired by the country's rocky coast, with a monolithic structure breaking from the surface of the sea to rest on the craggy shoreline. The bottom

Property company MCR Development has revealed how it will transform the Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight Center at JFK International Airport into a 505-room hotel. The developer has installed a lounge on the 86th storey of the One World Trade Center to showcase some of the main features of the development and new renderings have been released to give an impression of what the hotel will look like. The modernist

A resort in one of Kenya’s most popular safari destinations is offering guests the chance to sleep under the stars in a human-scale ‘bird's nest’ above the treetops. Constructed alongside a river teeming with wildlife, the Nay Palad Bird Nest provides a 360-degree bird’s eye-view of the surrounding wilderness – home to giraffes, elephants and other wildlife. The structure, designed by architect Daniel Pouzet, is built from raw materials, including

A former prison in the city of Offenburg has been transformed into a hotel called Liberty following an extensive renovation. Set just outside the city walls of the old town, close to the Black Forest and the French border, Hotel Liberty features 38 rooms and suites spread across two 19th century buildings, which have been connected by a new contemporary glass volume. The prison was designed by German architect Heinrich

The Vietnamese government has granted approval for a mammoth resort to be built in Mui Dinh on the country’s southeastern coast. The Bangkok studio of global architects and masterplanners Chapman Taylor are creating a 1 million sq m masterplan for the Mui Dinh Eco-Resort, which will include six resort hotels – with a combined 7,000 rooms – a theme park, a casino, a spa, a beach club, a boutique hotel,

Dutch hotelier Eric Toren and designers Wim van de Oudeweetering and Cris van Amsterdam are collaborating on a boutique hotel in Amsterdam they claim will offer a level of luxury that is “unprecedented in the Netherlands.” Hotel TwentySeven has been created within the city’s early 20th century Royal Industrial Club building, located opposite the palace in Dam Square. It will open at the end of October. The designers have created

Developer Nakheel and Thai hotel group Centara Hotels and Resorts have unveiled plans to open a hotel, beach resort and waterpark on Dubai’s Deira Islands. The two companies have formed a joint venture agreement for the “family-centric lifestyle destination,” which will be part of the newly-formed Deira Islands – a 15sq km (5.8sq mi) group of four reclaimed artificial islands currently under development. Set to open in 2020, the 600-bedroom