From Derelict Bunker to Modern Day Babylon: Moon Gang Ubud by YSG Studio.Bali does not want for design accommodation. What it wants for is design accommodation that belongs to Bali. Moon Gang, the five-suite hotel in Ubud by Sydney's YSG Studio, is the rare one that does...
One Good Connection: What I Found at Jia Curated 2026 in Bali.Jia Curated is hard to describe, which is the first good sign. Not a fair, not a festival—250-odd brands, five days, a talks programme and a beach in Sanur. Dana Tomić Hughes went to Bali for the fifth edition, and came home convinced...
Motel Bones, Ibiza Spirit: Inside The Whale Narooma on the NSW Far South Coast.Some hotels are designed to be photographed. The Whale has been designed for the slower business of sitting still. Opened this June in Narooma on the NSW far South Coast, the boutique hotel pulls the spirit of 1970s Ibiza up against the...
Three Generations, One Nervy Brief: Hannes Peer Reimagines Merano’s Aurora Hotel.Aurora has anchored Merano's Passer Promenade for almost sixty years. Now the third generation of the Aukenthaler family has handed the 59-room hotel to Hannes Peer Architecture and Feld72, with a brief of unusual nerve: don't erase,...
Studio Loho’s JonojĂ© is Strange, Sculptural & Impossible to Forget.Is it beautiful? Is it ugly? JonojĂ© refuses to settle the question — and that's what makes it so compelling. Studio Loho's new Bruges B&B runs on a push-pull between the simple and the sculptural: moments of quiet respite, then a hard...
You Can’t Fake Energy: Dana’s Notes from 3 Days of Design Copenhagen 2026.At 3 Days of Design, Dana Tomić Hughes went looking for the thing no budget or brand history can buy—the feeling that a space is actually alive. Across several shows and installations, including one chance encounter, she traces the gap...
Impertinence as a Design Strategy: Studio KO Brings the Legendary Bus Palladium Back to Life in Paris.Studio KO's Bus Palladium is not a hotel with a club, nor a club that decided to add rooms. It's something more interesting — an attempt to do for Paris what the Chelsea Hotel did for New York: a place where artists, musicians, and...
The Honest Conversations are Happening in DMs: Dana’s Notes from Milan Design Week 2026.Sixteen years on from her first Milan Design Week, Dana Tomić Hughes returned alone for the first time. What she found was a design industry that has engineered honesty out of itself, where the brand activation has overtaken the design...
Waldo Works Transforms Historic Frankfurt Banking Hall into Bauhaus-Inspired Hotel.Waldo Works transforms Deutsche Bank headquarters into Kimpton Main Frankfurt hotel with Bauhaus-inspired interiors. The Anni brasserie pays homage to textile artist Anni Albers, while guest rooms feature indigo-dyed veneer headboards and...
