News & Stories

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Event hubs with a new brand profile

Architecture Talks: Buildings follow lifestyle - trend towards authenticity

6.6.2008

Lucerne. The new architectural axis runs from Dubai via Moscow and Beijing right into the rest of Asia. Skyscrapers give major cities a new appearance - a new "brand profile". The towers push, wind and spiral upwards, they are twisted and leaning structures screaming for global attention in a shrill and square way. Last week`s "Architecture Talks Lucerne" in Switzerland analysed the relation between "architecture & branding". Buildings are increasingly becoming symbols of significance, while their actual function can no longer be recognised through their shape. After the era of superlatives, this world sees the advent of a new way of thinking: authenticity. It follows the modern lifestyle trend. That is why it is no surprise that more and more brand companies instead of municipalities are changing the appearance of a city with their investments in urban architecture. A global trend.

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Straight will prevail

Looking for trends in Lucerne's luxury and design hotels

6.6.2008

Lucerne. A tour through Swiss luxury and design hotels among architects and developers has a great appeal. The solid Hotel Palace, the Art Deco Hotel Montana and the design hotels The Hotel and Hotel Astoria opened themselves to this professional group in the run-up to the "Architectural Talks" in Lucerne, which analyses hotels with respect to suitability of materials, visual effects and consistency. All participants carefully listened to a dialogue between Frank Joss, who led the Architectural Talks, and the direct and rigorous hotelier Urs Karli, who directed the attention of the international architectural scene to the small town at Lake Vierwaldstätter with his top-class design hotels.

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Colourful into new markets

Vienna International opened first angelo design hotel in Germany

30.5.2008

Munich. The fact that the first German angelo hotel has accidentally internalised the German national colours black, red and gold is pure coincidence. The yellow lettering on the facade clearly helps to spot the hotel more easily. It is located at Munich's pulsating traffic artery of Mittlerer Ring and at the moment, behind a mega construction site at Leuchtenbergring. In the meantime, the beaming, pure colours help visitors forget the dirt and noise outside. Accordingly, last Monday saw the opening of a new hotel with a friendly and fresh design character. For the Austrian hotel management company of Vienna International this was the first step into Germany. It remains to be seen whether it will be able to achieve the room rates targeted on the very competitive Munich market.

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New form of "Residential Living"

Four Seasons Florence to operate the world's first Palace Residence Club

2.5.2008

Florence. Italian 'grandezza' is guaranteed. The world's first Palace Residence Club is to be Florence's Palazzo Tornabuoni, one of Italy's most significant and impressive renaissance palaces. The Medicis lived there and in the Sala delle Muse "Dafne", the world's first opera, was first performed in 1594. Now, a new trend has brought the Sleeping Beauty back into the world of the awake: "Residential Living" under the fractional ownership principle. Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, a company with worldwide experience, now ventures into new territory in Italy: a club model. The part owners of the 36 noble residences also profit from proximity to the Four Seasons Hotel Florence due to open in July 2008.

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Ordeal for design architecture

The end for Botta in St. Moritz - Success with Nouvel & Herzog de Meuron

18.4.2008

Lucerne. The plans for a 77-metre tall hotel including holiday apartments designed by Ticino’s top-class architect Mario Botta and located at Celerina near St. Moritz in Upper Engadin/Switzerland have been closed. This building would even have towered above the church of the small town. The man celebrated by Switzerland for the spa of the Tschuggen Grand Hotel Arosa worth 35 million Swiss francs now took an "open slap", as the Swiss newspaper "Suedostschweiz" put it. Is the decision against Botta a signal against the wave of architectural superlatives in Switzerland? At the same time in Lucerne, copper continues to drip from the design roof of the culture and congress centre polluting the lake.

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Genuinely refurbished

Moevenpick in Hamburg's water tower celebrated MIPIM Award

18.4.2008

Hamburg. The squeaking mice in the rotting ruin of Hamburg's water tower fell silent just as the loud protests of the independent scene from the neighbourhood did. Even the official sceptics stopped frowning. The Moevenpick Hotel Hamburg has been accepted ten months after its opening. The 226-room hotel located in a historical industrial memorial in Hamburg went through prejudices, construction disasters and public resistance like hardly any hotel before. At the MIPIM real estate fair in Cannes this March, the project was awarded the coveted industrial award in the "hotels and tourism resorts" category. One more reason to celebrate in Hamburg last Friday - taking a relaxed look back on pretty tense times.

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RCI: Timeshare project in Oman

18.4.2008

Oman. Vacation exchange company RCI has unveiled a new timeshare project in Oman. The company has announced an agreement with Allied Oman, the leisure real estate enterprise, to affiliate the timeshare project at the Barka Resort.

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Hapimag with positive figures

4.4.2008

Baar. Hapimag, one of the leading European specialist for holiday right of residence products, continued its successful development through 2007. Sales revenues were boosted by 7 per cent over the previous year's level, to 246.1 million CHF. Consolidated income also increased, by roughly 30 per cent, to 2.9 million CHF. These figures confirm the positive trend of the past two years.

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Austrian hotelier pulls out of Croatia

21.3.2008

Zell am See. After five years, the Austrian private hotelier Dr. Wilfried Holleis has given up on plans for the hotel complex Katarineninsel in Rovinj, Croatia. The reason for the decision was the uncertain legal situation prevalent in the Balkan state.

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WestFonds to sell valuable hotel portfolio

7.3.2008

Berlin. WestFonds Immobilien-Anlagegesellschaft mbH in Duesseldorf will shortly sell a valuable international portfolio consisting of eight pieces of hotel real estate. The portfolio value is said to be worth several hundreds of millions.

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