Travels that inspire design, part 1.
Culture, environment, religion, economics — they all leave fingerprints on the buildings we live in and the rooms we love.
These books by Monacelli Press are a great way to travel from the comfort of home, remembering places you’ve been, stayed or have on your bucket list.
I have always loved to travel. There is something about landing somewhere new — a city, a coastline, a mountain range — and slowly learning how the people there live, build, and gather that I find endlessly fascinating. Every place has a story, and that story is almost always written into its architecture and interiors. Culture, environment, religion, economics — they all leave fingerprints on the buildings we live in and the rooms we love. Watching how those forces come together, and how they shape a space, is one of the great joys of my work and my life.
When I travel, I go looking for beautiful places to stay. I want something unique — ideally with a bit of history behind it. I gravitate toward boutique properties: smaller in scale, rich in character, deeply connected to the place they call home rather than chasing the latest trend. Over the years I have built a short list of trusted sources for finding these gems, and more often than not, they have not let me down.
A discovery in Chile
On a recent trip to Chile, I found myself unwinding with an end-of-day cocktail in the hotel lounge when three books on the coffee table caught my eye: Culture, Explore, and Design, published by Leading Hotels of the World. Naturally, I reached for Design first, and paged through photo after photo of extraordinary hotels around the world. The property I was staying at — tucked into the otherworldly landscape of San Pedro de Atacama — had earned its place in Explore, and rightly so. It was an oasis surrounded by beauty in every direction, with some of the clearest night skies I have ever seen for stargazing.
That trip also gave me my first hot air balloon ride, and it did not disappoint. Floating above the Atacama, watching the patterns and textures unfold below — the color, and in many places the striking absence of it — I found myself leaning over the edge of the basket, utterly transfixed.
Coincidentally, the latest issue of Oltre magazine landed in my mailbox not long after I got home, with a feature on Chile that includes the Nayera resort. It was a lovely bit of serendipity — reading a fresh take on a place I had just fallen in love with, and seeing it through someone else's lens so soon after my own visit.
Stars so bright and clear you didn’t need a telescope to appreciate them at the Nayara Atacama Resort.
The view from about 600’ above the Atacama in a hot air balloon.
Bringing it home.
Shortly after I returned, my travel companion surprised me with the full trilogy of books. I sat down to go through all three, and it was like retracing every trip I have taken — the countries, the journeys, the environments, the design details, the visual inspiration tucked into every page. The photography and writing are beautifully composed, and the property overviews are already proving useful as I dream up my next adventure.
Travel has a way of feeding design, and design has a way of making sense of a place. I have a feeling this will be the first of many stories from the road — so consider this to be continued.