I recently stumbled upon - or rather, I was alerted by StumbleUpon - to the "Top 20 World Most Beautiful Living Spaces" in the Ultra Home Magazine and I was wowed!
Click here to see them.
What is most astonishing about such rooms that no doubt characterize the tastes of the One Percent is the fixation on linking the indoors with the outdoors.
The design of everyone one of them is entirely focused on the concept of bringing Nature inside of the room, even when the furniture and fixtures, fireplaces etc are highly sophisticated, like in this lovely chalet in Zermatt, Switzerland (the Firefly Ski Chalet):
The view is what matters. Yes, here you zero in on the Matterhorn, you can't avoid it!
This is just the sort of place where in my novel Forever Young beautiful Emma stops after skiing with Sergio, on the last day of her life, knowing she has only five hours left to live (in case you don't know, that's my science fiction novel, set 200 years from now, soon to be published as a whole book - on Amazon for now you find only Part One for a paltry 99 cents, just to give you a foretaste...).
And in the Maldives, the fixation on the outdoors was brought to a paroxysm: a bedroom was created on the bottom of the sea, bringing the swimming fish literally within reach of your hands when you wake up:
There was only one of the twenty rooms that was focused on itself, a so-called "converted cathedral":
Here the focus is on the rose window, you can't see outside! But note that it's not stained glass - presumably Time has done away with it. The owners didn't turn to imitation stained glass and rightly so, it's often a poor choice, the art has been largely lost. They used thick, grey-colored glass. The effect is similar to stained glass: it is not see-through. A deliberate choice to turn the dwellers' gaze indoors! And that of course makes the room most unusual.
What do you think? Which room do you like best?
Why do you suppose the ultra rich nowadays seek to reach outdoors instead of concentrating on the design of the interior, as kings and nobles used to do in their palaces, turning them into sumptuous marvels for their own sake?
Click here to see them.
What is most astonishing about such rooms that no doubt characterize the tastes of the One Percent is the fixation on linking the indoors with the outdoors.
The design of everyone one of them is entirely focused on the concept of bringing Nature inside of the room, even when the furniture and fixtures, fireplaces etc are highly sophisticated, like in this lovely chalet in Zermatt, Switzerland (the Firefly Ski Chalet):
The view is what matters. Yes, here you zero in on the Matterhorn, you can't avoid it!
This is just the sort of place where in my novel Forever Young beautiful Emma stops after skiing with Sergio, on the last day of her life, knowing she has only five hours left to live (in case you don't know, that's my science fiction novel, set 200 years from now, soon to be published as a whole book - on Amazon for now you find only Part One for a paltry 99 cents, just to give you a foretaste...).
And in the Maldives, the fixation on the outdoors was brought to a paroxysm: a bedroom was created on the bottom of the sea, bringing the swimming fish literally within reach of your hands when you wake up:
Beautiful... Though I personally find that underwater feeling a little oppressive.
There was only one of the twenty rooms that was focused on itself, a so-called "converted cathedral":
Here the focus is on the rose window, you can't see outside! But note that it's not stained glass - presumably Time has done away with it. The owners didn't turn to imitation stained glass and rightly so, it's often a poor choice, the art has been largely lost. They used thick, grey-colored glass. The effect is similar to stained glass: it is not see-through. A deliberate choice to turn the dwellers' gaze indoors! And that of course makes the room most unusual.
What do you think? Which room do you like best?
Why do you suppose the ultra rich nowadays seek to reach outdoors instead of concentrating on the design of the interior, as kings and nobles used to do in their palaces, turning them into sumptuous marvels for their own sake?
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