Art Basel is welcoming 291 galleries for its 48th edition, June 15 to 18, presenting works dating from the early 20th century to the present. The fair is part of a region-wide art week that this year includes Design Miami Basel, a global forum for collectible design that runs June 13-18, as well as a number of exhibitions in Basel’s museums.
An annual highlight, Art Basel’s Parcours program is to present 22 site-specific artworks in Basel’s Münsterplatz—where Ai Weiwei‘s monumental sculpture “Iron Tree” will be found—and further afield—such as “Footnote to a Fountain” by Sophie Nys, which will place jerry cans at several fountains throughout the city in honor of this “perpetual source of free drinkable water.”
The exclusive Club de Bâle is opening its doors for this year’s Parcours and will host Wu Tsang’s “The secret life of things is open,” a library consisting of film, sound and printed works as part of a collaboration with poet and theorist Fred Moten. At the Club, a live performance on Saturday night will include “The Green Room & The Science Lab,” in which performance artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd plays a mad scientist in a fantastical laboratory, inspired by Jerry Lewis’s Nutty Professor.
On Basel’s Pflatz viewing area, a bronze sculpture by Lena Henke will depict a surrealistic interpretation of New York‘s urban landscape.
Art Basel‘s public art component, however, is this year not limited to Parcours. Swiss artist Claudia Comte’s “NOW I WON” promises to transform the Messeplatz into an immersive installation—offering a playful commentary on the art market, which Comte has referred to as a “fun fair.”
Seven wooden stall booths will be carved by Comte with a chainsaw, while her circular abstract paintings will serve as darts targets and her wooden and marble sculptures will act as bowling pins, tunnels and mini golf features.
“NOW I WON” will be open to the public for a small fee from June 13-18, beginning each day at 1pm. A second component of the installation consists of a large-scale sculpture made of 23 tree trunks that will sit upon an artificially created hill overlooking the funfair.
The new Napoli Afragola High-Speed Train Station, near the southern Italian city of Naples, is one of the last projects designed by the renowned architect Zaha Hadid before her death in 2016. The building was inaugurated by the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, and enters service June 11. The freshly inaugurated high-speed train station in Afragola, on the outskirts of Naples, is billed as a gateway to the south of Italy, announces the late architect’s practice, Zaha Hadid Architects. The station will operate from June 11 and has been designed as a key interchange and rail hub, served by four high-speed rail lines linking northern and southern Italy, plus three interregional lines and one local commuter line.
This train station has been designed as an urbanized public bridge, connecting communities on either side of the train tracks. The public walkway, which also forms the station concourse, rises over eight railway lines.
Large entrances at either end of the bridge welcome and direct passengers and visitors towards public zones, lined with shops and other commodities. Arriving from either side of the station, passengers and passersby walking the concourse meet in a central atrium surrounded by cafés and restaurants.
The station, designed as an extrusion of a trapezoid along a 450m curved path, has been built with a reinforced concrete base. This supports an elevated concourse of 200 steel ribs and a glazed roof, featuring built-in solar panels.
The concrete used is a specific composition providing optimum performances, with curved structural concrete elements built using technologies initially developed during the construction of the MAXXI Museum in Rome, also designed by Zaha Hadid.
Zaha Hadid died of a heart attack in Miami in March 2016. She was a key figure of 20th-century architecture. Born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq, Hadid was the first woman to be crowned with the Pritzker Architecture Prize, one of the most prestigious in the profession. She is also the first woman to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Images courtesy of Federation Internationale De L’Automobile
Images courtesy of Federation Internationale De L’Automobile
Images courtesy of Federation Internationale De L’Automobile
Images courtesy of Federation Internationale De L’Automobile
It was a weekend to cherish for Formula 1’s poster boy Lewis Hamilton. He joins legendary racing driver and his idol since the beginning, Ayrton Senna. Hamilton was presented with a helmet from the Senna family as he landed his sixty-fifth career pole equaling that of Senna. In a truly inspiring thank you message he promised to have it on his coffee table at the entrance of his Monaco home.
The Silver Arrows bounced right back from a rather unusual showing in Monaco with Hamilton leading the race from start to finish and Bottas finishing in second place. Daniel Ricciardo, who had a ‘shoey’ with Sir Patrick Dempsey finished third on the podium for the third consecutive time. Riccardo who lead the ‘shoey’ challenge drank from his right boot first and then invited Dempsey who willingly obliged much to the delight of the fans. As far as starts go, Max Verstappen’s performance was a heroic bid to get from fifth on the grid to almost second on the track. Starting behind both the Prancing Horses and the Silver Arrows, he flew off the line in brilliant style but had to retire due to reliability issues in a race that frankly could have seen him on the podium.
Montreal came together as a city to celebrate their 50th year of hosting the Grand Prix with a weekend of stellar parties beginning with, rather befittingly enough, La Grand Prix Soirée on Friday at the Ritz-Carlton. The exclusive black tie event in collaboration with Aston Martin and Red Bull featured DJ YO-C, an open Möet Bar and great food exclusively by the Ritz-CarltonMontreal. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the Martini Party that featured the Williams racing team of home favourite Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa was perched on a beautiful terrace overlooking old Montreal on a cool Saturday evening and was definitely one of the best places to catch the sunset.
Speaking of Stroll, the Canadian took every chance to savour his maiden points scoring race on the weekend, celebrating almost as if he had won the race. He kept into the crowd and was carried through the jubilant procession as they celebrated his ninth-placed finish, his best ever to date. Sunday’s most decadent affair, however, had to be L’Auberge Saint-Gabriel who pulled out all the stops with a party hosted by the infamous ABGE. The event kicked off with a selection of specially crafted Grand Prix cocktails alongside a curated blend of beats against the backdrop of what was surely the biggest parties over the weekend.
Singapore’s Changi Airport, which has monopolized the title of world’s best airport five years in a row, unveiled details on its newest attraction, Canopy Park. The park will span the size of 11 Olympic-sized swimming pools and feature kid-friendly attractions like a hedge maze, a glass-bottom bridge and an indoor rainforest. Widely recognized as the gold standard in airports, Changi Airport is pitched as a lifestyle destination in and of itself for offering travelers a micro-edited visit to Singapore with its indoor and outdoor tropical gardens, rooftop pool, street eats, cinemas, gaming centers and miles of retail shopping.
Once the Jewel Changi Airport complex opens in 2019, the bar will be raised even higher for features that include the world’s tallest indoor waterfall and five-storey indoor rainforest. Canopy Park will occupy the Jewel’s topmost level, spanning approximately 14,000 square feet (about 1300 sq meters).
Designed by a group of international consultants from the UK, France, Germany, Singapore, and the Netherlands, Canopy Park was conceived largely with families and children in mind. For parents who want to tucker their kids out before their flight, there’s Sky Nets, a bouncing and walking net that offers dramatic views of the 25-meter drop to the Jewel’s lower level.
There’s also Canopy Mazes, which features both a hedge maze and mirrored labyrinth, while Discovery Slides is described as part art sculpture, part playground, with a four-slides-in-one concept. For the best view of the Rain Vortex, which will become the tallest indoor waterfall in the world at 40m, visitors can cross the Canopy Bridge, which will be suspended 23m above ground.
Details of the Rain Vortex were previously announced. A portion of the bridge also features glass-bottom panels to offer thrill-seekers the sense of walking on air. The Jewel is designed as a glass and steel-domed complex which will span five storeys above ground, and five storeys underground, and is slated to open in 2019.
Situated on the Gulf of Naples, lies Villa Astor in the town of Sorrento, 50km south of Naples, Italy. Towering above the Archipelago Campano, the Villa Astor is a Naples holiday home for the ultra rich. A magnificent private residence built on the ruins of a first century Roman villa (how debauched!), Villa Astor Sorrento is set on the cliffs of the Sorrentine Peninsula, thus, the ultra luxurious holiday home with a beautiful botanical garden (a top 10 in Italy, one might add) provides some of the most breathtaking views of Marina Grande and Marina Piccola.
Villa Astor Sorrento is set on the cliffs of the Sorrentine Peninsula providing epic views for the luxurious holiday home favoured by the ultra rich.
Provenance of a Naples Italy Holiday Home for the Ultra Rich
Acquired by then U.S Ambassador to Italy, William Waldorf Astor in 1905, he was the world’s synonym for money and power in the early 20th century right up there with names like Rockefeller. William Waldorf Astor’s great grandfather had made a fortune in fur before pivoting into a real estate empire, from there, the Astor family eventually built a business empire on the foundations of real estate, adding import and export trade, newspaper publishing and of course, forays into being hoteliers with the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York (then as in now, still the gold standard for luxury stays for the ultra rich).
Compared to Astor’s other holiday homes, the US$1.25 million Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire, England and the GBP10 million Hever Castle in Kent originally built for Anne Boleyn’s family (yes, the Anne Boleyn from the Tudors); the 110,210 lira Villa Astor Sorrento in Naples Italy was not the most palatial of his other luxury properties including the 67,000 square foot 18 Carlton House Terrace overlooking St. James Park in London; BUT, the Villa Astor Sorrento was his most indulgent.
The grounds of the Villa Astor Sorrento were expanded to develop the lush botanical gardens, rated to be among the top 10 in Italy.
Astor had spent the next 3 years quietly adding to the surrounding lands and grooming one of Italy’s top 10 botanical gardens. A neighbouring monastery and medieval church were acquired, torn down and subsequently added to the villa’s verdant lushness where he was able to recreate grand Roman style by adding a Pompeiian villa on the outskirts, decorated by Roman artist Mario Spinetti who added the villa’s signature Ionic columns. Dubbed Villa Florus, Astor then turned the Pompei-style villa into a private museum for antiquities. At the Villa proper, Astor added hand painted frescoes, wood flooring and even a glass dining room with unobstructed views so that his guests could enjoy views of the Naples and the archipelago in the gulf.
When Astor passed in 1919, the antiquities and its surrounding gardens were designated as part of the country’s heritage and they remain untouched, that is to say, not maintained. The Villa Astor Sorrento was eventually purchased by shipping magnate Mario Pane in the 70s. Rita Pane, the shipping tycoon’s wife threw incredible soirees and receptions, entertaining the likes of Princess Margaret and stylish man about town Gianni Agnelli, a meticulous record of provenance kept within the pages of Rita’s guest book. After three decades, the Panes eventually sold Villa Astor in 2012.
The Villa Astor Sorrento was eventually purchased by shipping magnate Mario Pane in the 70s. Rita Pane, the shipping tycoon’s wife threw incredible soirees and receptions, entertaining the likes of Princess Margaret
The new owners then hired French architect and interior designer Jacques Garcia to restore and update the luxurious holiday home. Garcia’s generous use of marble columns, Greek and Roman statues and many other archaeological pieces in the renovations adds serious Italian patrimony and provenance to the luxury real estate towering above the gulf of Naples. Indeed, it’s the no-expense-spared, full scale renovation, restoration and decoration, no half-measures were taken in bringing back the grandeur that William Waldorf Astor had intended.
Inside Villa Astor Sorrento
Sleeps 12 with 6 bedrooms. Prices range from EUR 9,450 TO 17,500 per night
A classically elegant main entrance hall opens the ground floor of the Villa Astor Sorrento into two luxuriously furnished sitting rooms and a library, all with marble floors and feature fireplaces over which ornate gilt edged mirrors hang.
A classically elegant main entrance hall opens the ground floor of the Villa Astor Sorrento into two luxuriously furnished sitting rooms
Proceed downstairs and you get to see a splendorous sitting area and dining room the way an ultra rich property tycoon intends. Naturally, your guests are served with by a large country-style kitchen with traditional black and white tiling. A music room for entertainment in the grand old style also exists with a grand piano along with the requisite large terrace facing the sea – the place venue for sundown cocktails overlooking the gulf of Naples or for romantic al fresco dining. Meanwhile, a basement with comfortable seating set in front of huge arched windows offers a beautiful view of the sea and Mount Vesuvius.
Can you believe this is the “basement” of the Villa Astor Sorrento? Huge arched windows offers a beautiful view of the sea and Mount Vesuvius.
The first floor is home to two gorgeously appointed master bedrooms with walk-room wardrobes and en-suite bathrooms. On the second floor, four lavishly appointed but humbler double bedrooms are there to serve your guests. Obviously each room may carry old world aesthetics but they have not only been decadently designed but also equipped with modern integrated audio/visual systems.
Classic old world elegance of the standard double room within the luxurious holiday home.
Overlooking the gulf of Naples, it is easy to see why the 20,000m2 garden is among the top 10 finest botanical gardens in Italy, that said, with 180 degree sea views, one might be hard pressed to decide where to cast your focus. The icing of this piece of luxury real estate is this Italian holiday home’s amazing internal pool in a natural grotto, directly leading out to the sea. A roof-top terrace of the Villa Astor Sorrento also offers uninterrupted views of Sorrento and the Gulf of Naples.
The roof terrace of the Villa Astor Sorrento providing 180 degree sea views off the Gulf of NaplesThe natural grotto leading out to the sea.
Finally, a wellness suite in the basement with a gym equipped with the latest Precor equipment, a massage room and shower exist for short-stay pampering in true luxurious fashion. Villa Astor has an elevator serving all floors and secure parking for three cars.
White sandy beaches, a view of the Andaman Sea and a villa that serves as your haven away from the city life. That is what The Twin Lotus Resort offers guests who visit the resort in Koh Lanta. Sitting on 12 acres of land and spanning 6 kilometres wide, it is difficult not to get lost in paradise. With the three kilometres of white sand beach in the Klong Dao section of Koh Lanta serving as one of the nine beaches that tourists can choose from, it is safe to say that this is a little slice of heaven.
Having undergone a revamp in 2013, the 81 rooms and villas offer guests six different accommodation options to choose from. Each option is a chance for guests to enjoy some sense of tranquillity and peace. Thanks to the renovation, the resort was able to add new Deluxe Rooms boasting garden and sea views as well as beachfront villas and even a Beach Bar. For the décor of each room, the Twin Lotus Resort has chosen to feature bamboo materials that are complemented by the soothing earth tones. Ranging from 34 square meters to 67 square meters, the rooms also offer guests their very own outdoor terrace or balcony.
A stay at a beach front resort is not complete without water activities such as snorkelling, kayaking and paddle boarding. The Twin Lotus Resort is able to provide guests with the necessary equipment to help them explore the marine life that calls the Andaman Sea its home. Those who wish to simply soak in the sun can also enjoy a beachfront massage — a perfect way to enjoy the best that Koh Lanta has to offer.
Completing the resort, are two restaurants that offer open-air dining options. Bua Fah Restaurant is situated in front of the main swimming pool and comes with rocking chairs and day beds. Open for a buffet breakfast, guests can indulge in a range of Thai and international dishes that are whipped up by the talented chefs. The second is the Barracuda Restaurant & Beach bar that is adjacent to the main swimming pool and just steps from the beach. Serving up refreshing drinks, the menu also includes fresh seafood as well as Thai and Western cuisine.
