Low-cost luxe: bedding down in affordable designer accommodation
Dream Hotel, Tampere, Finland
Dream Hostel owner, hospitality enrepreneur Ville Virkki, has now extended the premises of the industrial building with an additional floor, to create a boutique hotel.
Åkerlundinkatu 2, 33100 Tampere, Finland; Tel: 358.45 236 0517; www.dreamhostel.fi; Rates: from €59
Backstay, Ghent, Belgium
Best known for its high-quality student accommodation, property development company Upgrade Estate has now launched Backstay, a new hostel with 15 double rooms and a series of pod-style beds.
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 128, 9000 Ghent; Tel: 32.9 395 9660; www.backstayhostels.com; Rates: from €18.50
Hostel St James, Logrono, Spain
Named for the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, architect Sergio Rojo has revived a dilapidated nineteenth-century cultural centre in the city of Logrono, a stop off point for travellers.
Ruavieja, 42, 26001 Logrono, Spain; Tel: 34.941 256 976; Rates from: 14 USD
Generator Paris, France
The latest offering from boutique hostel brand, Generator is this time located in Paris’ gentrified 10th arrondissement, moments away from the vibrant Canal St. Martin.
11 Place du Colonel Fabien, 75010 Paris; Tel: 33.1 7098 8400; www.generatorhostels.com; Rates: from €25
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Gstaad Saanenland Youth Hostel, Saanen
Gstadd Saanenland Youth Hostel's gently asymmetrical design references the local chalet vernacular.
Spitzhornweg 25, 3792 Saanen (BE), Switzerland; Tel: 41.33 744 1343; www.youthhostel.ch; Rates from: 40 CHF
Hlemmur Square, Reykjavik, Iceland
The brainchild of hotelier and designer Klaus Ortlieb (behind New York’s Hotel Gotham), Hlemmur Square is a chic hybrid property housed in a distinctive Art Deco building built in the 1920s.
Laugavegur 105, 105 Reykjavik; Tel: 35.4 415 1600; www.hlemmursquare.com; Rates from: 2,700 ISK
Koyasan Guest House, Koyasan
Simplicity and modernity meet in Koyasan guesthouse, a new hostel in the eponymous village in Japan’s Kansai region.
Yubinbango 648-0211, 49-43 Itogun Koyacho Koyasan; Tel: 81. 0736 26 7216; koyasanguesthouse.com; Rates from: 3,500 JPY
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Gucci turns its windows into an endless library of books, artefacts and rare treasures
Featuring a collaboration with artist Luca Pignatelli, ‘Endless Narratives’ unfolds in Gucci store windows worldwide – a reflection of creative director Sabato de Sarno’s broad cultural interests
By Jack Moss Published
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Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: Formafantasma revisits the masculine codes of modernist design
Formafantasma wins a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025, for its Milan exhibition ‘La Casa Dentro’, which took to task the inherent masculinity and conservatism at the heart of modernism
By Hugo Macdonald Published
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Lesley Lokko reviews 2024's wins, shifts, tensions and opportunities for 2025
Lesley Lokko, the British-Ghanaian architect, educator, curator, and founder and director of the African Futures Institute (AFI), has been an inspirational presence in architecture in 2024; which makes her perfectly placed to discuss the year, marking the 2025 Wallpaper* Design Awards
By Lesley Lokko Published