The Fife Arms, Scotland
Between the rolling hills of Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park, The Fife Arms inhabits a Category B-listed, Victorian-era coaching inn that was restored last year into a 46-room boutique hotel by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, the co-founders of Swiss art gallery Hauser & Wirth. Naturally, the couple have filled the Russell Sage-designed interiors to the brim with murals and paintings by the biggest names in the contemporary art world. Artists such as Zhang Enli and Richard Jackson were also commissioned to create especially designed pieces for the hotel’s grandest rooms.
Where the artworks stop, the meticulously restored and locally sourced furniture pieces begin, creating an assemblage of original relics that would look at home in any Scottish baron’s mansion. The commitment to locality continues with the hotel’s The Flying Stag pub, which has established itself as a watering hole for the surrounding community, as well as in the picturesque Clunie Dining Room, where chef Magnus Burstedt’s wood-fire cooking brings out the best in Scottish produce.
Shinola Hotel, Detroit
Watch brand Shinola has for the past several years been synonymous with Detroit’s continuing urban revival, so it’s only appropriate that the most exciting hospitality project to open to date in this former industrial hub bears the company’s name. Created in partnership with Bedrock, Shinola Hotel combines the former Singer sewing machine store and the former T.B. Rayl & Co department store – which were carefully restored by Gachot and Kraemer Design Group – with three newly-constructed buildings that closely emulate to the red brick facades of Detroit’s downtown.
The result is a 129-room hotel that also functions as the city’s ‘living room,’ thanks to the addition of six restaurants and bars curated by James Beard Award-winning chef Andrew Carmellini and headed by the NoHo Hospitality Group, as well as the Parker’s Alley shopping street named after the city’s first black landowner. The emphasis on local craftsmanship is evident in the art and furniture found in the guest rooms, complementing the historical architecture and providing a visceral glimpse into the former gilded glory of Motor City.
Wuyuan Skywells, China
Shrouded in mountainous Jiangxi’s enigmatic fog, the weathered stone walls of Wuyuan Skywells lend it an ancient appearance, which is not too far from the truth. Originally built as a merchant’s inn three centuries ago, this Huizhou-style mansion was at various points in its history the home of a wealthy spinster who took in orphans, as well as the work office for the village commune at the height of Mao Zedong’s Communist reign – quotes from his Little Red Book still mark the moss-tinted walls of the inner courtyards.
Today, the house has been converted into a 14-room hotel thanks to English expat Edward and wife Selina, who fell in love with the area after visiting in 2015. Everything from the frieze carvings to the wooden joinery were painstakingly restored by local artisans, while maple, camphor, pomelo and plum blossom saplings have been replanted around the house to restore a fraction of the countless camphor trees that were felled during the Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile, Beijing studio anySCALE refurbished the generously-sized guestrooms in minimalist fashion, while remaining mindful of the weight of the building’s history.
Editor
Gavin Yeung
