Crown Hotels is adding a Crown Towers property in Perth to its portfolio, featuring a spa designed by Australian interior designer Blainey North. North was inspired by the beauty of the refraction of light underwater in her Crown Spa design, which is reflected in the aqua-hued treatment rooms. The spa includes male and female wet areas with aroma steamroom, Roman hot tub, sauna and private relaxation areas. Crown Towers Perth

Finnish architects Avanto Architects have designed a public sauna that doubles as an outdoor auditorium for marine sports in Helsinki. The sauna, named Löyly, is located on the waterfront in Hernesaari, once an industrial area of the city. Wooden slats clad the multi-faceted, pyramid-like structure, allowing visitors to climb up the roof to a viewpoint at the top of the building, or sit and look out to sea. A ground

The boutique five-star Milaidhoo Island Maldives is set to open this November on a small 300m by 180m island set in the heart of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the Baa Atoll region of the Maldives. Designed by local architect Mohamed Shafeeq, the resort will have a “barefoot informality” and include 30 over-water villas along with 20 beach villas, all with large private freshwater swimming pools. The resort’s spa will

A 360-room luxury hotel designed by Herzog & de Meuron for Hilton Worldwide in Washington is now under construction. The Conrad Washington D.C.will feature within 10-acre mixed-use development CityCenterDC, which is being created in the heart of the US capital. HKS Architects are collaborating on the hotel project, as are interior design firm Rottet Studio. Turner Construction Company is the project’s general contractor. Few design details have been released, but

The chair of the Global Wellness Institute’s Wellness Communities Initiative has urged architects and developers to embrace placemaking to ensure people live healthy and happy lives. Mia Kyricos told CLAD that owners and operators of wellness-driven businesses “have an amazing opportunity to be a part of a new frontier” considering people’s needs every day of their life, and not just when they're on holiday. “Like it or not, wellness is

Chinese corporation Anbang Insurance Group is reportedly preparing to extensively overhaul New York’s world-famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel, in order to convert two-thirds of its guest rooms into private condos. According to several US news sources, the hotel will close in Q1 2017 and could remain shut for as long as three years. The decision to create luxurious new private residences would be likely to boost short-term returns for Anbang, which

The W Amsterdam, which opened last October, is set to debut a new Away Spa in August, set inside an old bank vault. The spa was conceived by 4SeasonsSpa and designed by architects Baranowitz + Kronenberg, and includes a cold pool, whirlpool, sauna, steamroom and wet area, including a 25m (82 ft) outdoor whirlpool with views of the Royal Palace and historic city. The spa is set inside several historic

A new boutique hotel on the Italian island of Pantelleria is opening next month and will later house a natural, open-air spa facility. Sikelia is a luxury retreat created from an ancient dammuso – the original stone houses built on the volcanic island. The 20-suite hotel, is located 100km (62 miles) southwest of Sicily on the island known as the ‘black pearl’ of the Mediterranean. The hotel has been created

Pestanan Hotel Group has launched new signature spas for its Pousada Mosteiro do Crato and Pousada Convento de Arraiolos properties. Twenty years after its opening, Portuguese architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça has revisited the original Mosteiro do Crato and designed a spa feature a Turkish bath, whirlpool, sauna and treatment rooms. Built within a century-old convent, the Pousada Convento de Arraiolos now boasts an indoor pool with views overlooking

Wellness destination Canyon Ranch is set to open its first location outside the US on 1 July in Kaplankaya, Turkey, near Bodrum. The first international location for the brand marks a significant step in Canyon Ranch’s nearly 40-year history in the wellness space, and involves bringing some of the best programming from the iconic Tucson location to the Turkish Riviera, as the company aims to reach a whole new European

International design studio Architects of Invention have released a concept proposal for a resort and spa created by biomimicry. Located on Mahe Island in the Seychelles, the Coral Hotel would feature several restaurants, apartments, a club-house with a pool, a private marina and a spa complex housed within a structure that resembles a sea creature or coral formation. “This is a new type of a biomimetic architecture that seeks solutions

Minor Hotels will debut the Anantara Kalutara Resort on Sri Lanka’s southwest coast this October, featuring an extensive two-storey spa. Designed by the late Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, Anantara Kalutara is surrounded by tropical gardens and coconut palms, and features a simplistic elegance. The resort is set between the Indian Ocean and Kalu River, and boasts coastal, river and lagoon frontage. The 141 bedrooms, suites and pool villas will

Miami-based AIC Hotel Group – whose properties include Miami Beach’s iconic Eden Rock Hotel and Nobu Hotel, as well as several Hard Rock properties – has launched a new adults-only, all-inclusive brand, Unico Hotels, with the first location set to debut in Riviera Maya on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The brand is designed to reflect each property’s locale and native culture, and the nomenclature will play on the latitude and longitude

Hard Rock International, in collaboration with glh Hotels, has unveiled plans for the Hard Rock Hotel London, to be located at Marble Arch on Hyde Park at the crossroads of Oxford Street and Park Lane. The 900-room hotel is a conversion of the existing Cumberland Hotel, and is scheduled for completion in 2018. It will include the brand’s Rock Spa, which features a concept based around signature music-infused spa treatments,

Conrad Hotels has made its debut in the Philippines with the opening of Conrad Manila today, in the heart of the 42-acre Bay City development. Perched on top of a high-end shopping, dining and lifestyle mall, the Conrad Manila features 347 bedrooms as well as a spa with six treatment rooms with soaking tubs, a private sauna and steam facilities. It also includes a fitness centre and a third-level, coral-shaped

Western and Japanese concepts of spatial definition and materiality merge in a newly opened spa and health club in Tokyo, designed by COE Architecture International. Aqua Sports & Spa, which was completed this month for fitness operator Seta Sports Connection, is a six-storey, 6,000sq m (65,000sq ft) building in Setagaya-Ku ward. It replaces a 1980s facility, and has been designed to promote personal sports training, Japanese bathing and social activities

Luxury resort and casino Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas has unveiled a newly renovated spa and wellness facility. Managed by Trilogy Spa Holdings, a boutique spa operator, The Spa at Red Rock by Well & Being features customised wellness experiences, including an updated menu of cutting-edge fitness classes, nutrition, integrative medicine, mind-body therapies and advanced skincare. This is the third Well & Being spa for Trilogy – with spas

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) have today (14 June) announced a partnership to accelerate the integration of health and wellness in the built environment. In a bid to engage the interior design community in the drive, ASID will educate its 25,000 members in the US and Canada on the principles, practices and applications of the internationally-recognised WELL Building Standard accreditation. The

The first renderings of the next Margaritaville destination resort – which will open in Orlando, Florida by the end of 2017 – have been released, shining a light on US singer Jimmy Buffett's ambitious plans for the US$750m (€664m, £526m) leisure scheme. Construction recently began on the 320-acre property, called Margaritaville Resort Orlando, which features interior designs from The McBride Company and is being developed by Encore Capital Management in

Luxury hotel brand Bulgari will come to Moscow in 2019, with a hotel set in the former residence of a noble family that was also later home to musicians from the famed Conservatory P.I. Tchaikovsky. Designed by Italian architectural firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners – which is also working on the Bulgari Dubai – in collaboration with Russian architectural bureau Atrium, the Bulgari Hotel in Moscow is planned

Global spa management company Resense is working on eight new spa developments across Asia, with projects scheduled in China, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea. Resense has also established a subsidiary company, Resense China, with offices in Beijing, which will oversee all projects and developments within Asia. Emlyn Brown is director and Alice Zhang is operations coordinator. “The team in Beijing will continue Resense’s dedication to creating and supporting spas

The Hyatt Hotels Corporation has officially opened its first European resort; Park Hyatt Mallorca. The Spanish property, which is located across five hectares in the Cap Vermell Estate, is designed in the style of an authentic Mallorquín hillside village. Buildings designed by DSA Architects International are spread across three main terraces and smaller terraces typical of traditional local agricultural settlements have also been scattered across the development, with prominent use

Hotel operator Four Seasons has opened its fifth Hawaiian resort; a new property on the island of O’ahu. The Four Seasons Resort O’ahu at Ko Olina is located on the ocean in the community of Ko Olina. At the heart of the property is a 17-storey terraced hotel – originally designed by architect Edward Killingsworth in 1998 and now renovated by Honolulu studio Philpotts Interiors – that was once the

A hotel in Bath, has unveiled an extensive renovation of its spa facilities as it bids to become one of the top spa destinations in the UK. Bath is famous for its hot springs and spa culture, and boasts many of the country’s most popular spa destinations. In order to remain competitive, The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa has invested in renovating its spa facility The Bath House into a

The iconic Swiss hotel Waldhaus Flims is undergoing a CHF40m (US$40m, €36m, £28m) renovation aimed to maintain the property’s storied heritage while enhancing the resort to a luxury alpine hotel and spa. The 150-bedroom hotel was acquired by Z Capital Partners – the same company that also recently acquired wellness hotel Carillon Miami Beach – in December, marking the group’s first international expansion. The renovation is being undertaken by Hong

Health and wellness hotel specialist Henri Chenot is opening a five-star retreat in Azerbaijan near Gabala lake, marking the brand’s first venture outside the Italian border. Based on the holistic detox and revitalisation Chenot methods, the Chenot Palace Health Wellness Hotel Gabala will be both a medical spa and a medical clinic dedicated to improving the health, wellbeing and natural appearance of guests. It is set to open in November

Lanserhof Lans, the world-famous Austrian destination spa, is undergoing a major renovation between May and December 2016. The existing facility will be extended and a new building by German-based architect Christoph Ingenhoven will also be added. Ingenhoven is one of many regular guests to the detox retreat in the alpine state Tirol. The new structure – an oval building with a wooden façade and a grassy roof – will have