Already thinking about your next getaway post-Christmas? Here is Dezeen’s pick of 2023’s top 10 hotels, put together as part of our review of the year.
Our selection of the most popular and noteworthy hotels featured on Dezeen this year includes what is possibly the world’s skinniest in Indonesia, the grand conversion of a 1940s bank building in Rome and a place in Tbilisi that aims to make guests feel like they’re inside a movie.
Read on for the full list:
PituRooms, Indonesia, by Sahabat Selojene
This seven-room hotel in Central Java is just 2.8 metres wide. Each compact room contains a double bed and bathroom pod with a toilet and shower.
“Aside from the technical difficulties, the biggest challenge was the typical mindset surrounding the hospitality industry that is used to superlative words: biggest, tallest, most luxurious,” Sahabat Selojene studio founder Ary Indra told Dezeen. “Here we are skinniest.”
PituRooms was not the only skinny hotel to capture readers attention in 2023, with 324Praxis’ Sep’on Heartfulness Centre in Vietnam similarly slender.
Find out more about PituRooms ›
The Rome Edition, Italy, by The Edition
Dramatic seven-metre-high ceilings, full-height windows with green curtains and travertine surfaces grace the lobby of The Rome Edition.
Created by Amercian entrepreneur Ian Schrager’s hotel group The Edition, the 91-room hotel opened this year in a 1940s bank building. Other highlights include the intimate Jade Bar, which is fully lined in deep green antique marble and furnished with emerald-coloured velvet seating.
Find out more about The Rome Edition ›
Blueberry Nights, Georgia, by Sandro Takaishvili
Georgian architect Sandro Takaishvili wanted Tbilisi’s Blueberry Nights to make guests feel “like they’re inside a movie, where everything feels slightly familiar but otherworldly at the same time”.
With a theatrical colour scheme and cinematic moody lighting, its design evokes the visual style of directors such as Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch, while film projectors feature in all 16 rooms.
Find out more about Blueberry Nights ›
Boca de Agua, Mexico, by Frida Escobedo
Wooden guest quarters perched on stilts characterise Boca de Agua, a resort in the Yucatán Peninsula designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo
The villas – including one with a private pool and terrace – were raised up to reduce the environmental impact of the ground plane and to raise guests into the leafy jungle landscape.
Find out more about Boca de Agua ›
Borgo Santandrea, Italy, by Bonaventura Gambardella and Nikita Bettoni
Overlooking the historic fishing village of Conca dei Marini on the Amalfi Coast, the 1960s Borgo Santandrea hotel was restored by architect Bonaventura Gambardella and interior designer Nikita Bettoni.
The hotel incorporates the atmospheric medieval stone fortifications carved into the cliff below, with some of the guest rooms built into the old ramparts.
Find out more about Borgo Santandrea ›
Maison Brummell Majorelle, Morocco, by Bergendy Cooke and Amine Abouraoui
Located next to the famous Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech, this boutique hotel was designed by New Zealand studio Bergendy Cooke in collaboration with Moroccan architect Amine Abouraoui.
With its sculptural, monolithic aesthetic and recurring arched openings inside and out, it was intended as a playful contemporary twist on the site’s history and the city’s traditional architecture.
Find out more about Maison Brummell Majorelle ›
The Lodge, Spain, by Pilar García-Nieto
From Único Hotels, The Lodge occupies a 500-year-old farmhouse in Mallorca on a 157-hectare estate filled with almond and olive trees, lavender fields and hiking trails.
Interior designer Pilar García-Nieto kept the interiors mostly clean and minimal but left traces of the building’s agricultural past visible – most spectacularly an old stone mill for pressing olive oil, which stands in what is now the hotel reception area.
Find out more about The Lodge ›
Pan Pacific Orchard, Singapore, by WOHA
Large, elevated garden terraces are cut into the form of this tall hotel building in Singapore designed by architecture studio WOHA, including one 18 floors up.
The studio wanted the hotel to have verdant views on all storeys despite its urban location, while the terraces also provide passive cooling in the humid climate.
Find out more about Pan Pacific Orchard ›
Vermelho, Portugal, by Christian Louboutin and Madalena Caiado
Fashion designer Christian Louboutin teamed up with architect Madalena Caiado to create this 13-room hotel in the Portuguese village of Melides.
Its traditionalist architecture meets maximalist interiors, with the rooms containing furniture from Louboutin’s personal collection as well as objects produced by local craftsmen. Louboutin talked to Dezeen about design process behind the hotel in an exclusive interview.
Find out more about Vermelho ›
Château Royal, Germany, by Irina Kromayer and others
Berlin’s renovated Château Royal references the German capital’s heyday at the turn of the 20th century through abundant oak panelling, art nouveau tiles, sisal carpets and hardware in brass and nickel.
The 93-room hotel comprises two buildings dating from 1850 and 1910, in addition to a newer building and roof extension designed by David Chipperfield Architects.
Find out more about Château Royal ›
2023 review
This article is part of Dezeen’s roundup of the biggest and best news and projects in architecture, design, interior design and technology from 2023.
