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A Floating Sauna With Mountain Views in Queensland, New Zealand
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| Left: the indoor-outdoor sauna Watershed is part of a new wellness movement in Queensland, a city more commonly known for its adventure tourism. Right: Watershed’s private north sauna has uninterrupted views across the lake to Walter Peak. Lauren Murray Wildfolk |
Watershed, a sauna that floats on Lake Whakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand, is about a five-minute walk from the city’s center. The location was chosen by its founders, the former TV presenter Dominic Bowden and the entrepreneur Andrew Glen, for its uninterrupted southwesterly views across the Remarkables mountain range. The purpose-built pontoon, which opened this past December and was designed with a nod to the simple agricultural architecture of the surrounding Otago region, can accommodate 20 guests across two saunas. One is larger and open to walk-ins for a more traditional communal experience, while the other is reserved for private bookings of up to six. Both spaces, which are made of Scandinavian aspen and heated to about 185 degrees, were designed by Petri Knuuttila, a Helsinki-born sauna specialist. Buttons on the wall can be pressed to release water onto the Finnish-made heaters. Once optimum loyly (a Finnish word for the burst of steam that’s the spirit of the sauna experience) has been achieved, guests can move to the outside deck, where pull-handle buckets offer an invigorating deluge of lake water (typically between 45 and 55 degrees). The more daring can take a plunge through a void in the pontoon for a full-body thermal contrast experience. Queenstown, which has long been known as the adventure capital of New Zealand for its skiing, hiking, climbing and white-water experiences (it’s also the birthplace of commercial bungee jumping) has lately seen a wave of wellness-oriented openings, including a new bathhouse and hot pool retreat. From $35, watershedsaunas.com.
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A Mexico City Guesthouse With Trompe L’Oeil Décor and Blue-Corn Pancakes for Breakfast
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| Left: in one room of the Mexico City guesthouse Pension, a wall-spanning photograph of neo-Classical statuary, a king-size bed and an aquatic-themed Christopher Farr rug. Right: the Café Ideal dining room on the ground floor. Left: Max Farago. Right: Ricardo Acuña |
Since 2021, anyone who dreamed of spending a night perusing the art and fashion titles at Casa Bosques — the 13-year-old book and magazine store in Mexico City’s Roma Norte district — could reserve one of three guest rooms upstairs, each equipped with little more than sculptural light fixtures, a low platform bed and, of course, a considered edit of reading material. In 2023, the Casa Bosques founder Rafael Prieto acquired the 1914 townhouse next door, and this month he expanded Pension, the lodging arm of his epicurean universe, which also includes a chocolate atelier and a design agency. No two of the guesthouse’s seven new rooms are alike, instead offering, on two floors, distinct vignettes that are by turns uncanny, theatrical and romantic, their eclecticism tied together by a moody color scheme of blues, tans and greens shot with flashes of gold and yellow. Dartington glassware, rugs inspired by literary swimming pools, and Bocci lamps are juxtaposed with fabric-covered surfaces and wallpaper featuring blown-up images of Venetian museums, grand interiors and the sea that Prieto takes on European holidays. The bathrooms are decorated with handmade tiles and old-fashioned fixtures. The custom armoires hold Dyson fans as well as snacks selected by the nearby restaurant Rosetta, while downstairs the forthcoming Café Ideal (a collaboration with Prieto’s friend, the food artist Laila Gohar, which is scheduled to open March 18) serves blue-corn pancakes with banana ice cream in the morning and vegetable-forward Mediterranean-inflected fare — think fava bean vignarola, an Italian stew — from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. From $180 a night, casabosquespension.com.
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A Painter’s Abstract Ode to Dance, on View in New York
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| Kwamé Azure Gomez’s “Back Water Blue New Moon (After Dianne)” (2025) is one of two large-scale paintings on display in “Set the Atmosphere,” the artist’s first New York solo exhibition. © Kwamé Azure Gomez, courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, Aspen |
As a member of the Church of God in Christ, the artist Kwamé Azure Gomez grew up performing in a liturgical praise dance group, which sparked a lifelong interest in music and movement. When she left her hometown, Akron, Ohio, to attend graduate school in Chicago, she became immersed in queer nightlife, learning about the origins of house music and the history of ballroom. “ I’ve never really stopped dancing. I just switched partners, in a way,” says Gomez. “Set the Atmosphere,” her debut New York solo exhibition opening at Marianne Boesky Gallery on March 5, features 12 new paintings that draw on her personal experience as well as on the work of Black radical theorists like Fred Moten. With inspirations and references ranging from the poet Lucille Clifton to the musician D’Angelo, and paintings dedicated to both her grandmothers, the body of work on display functions as a meditation on “ ancestral veneration,” says Gomez. Her color-drenched works, which are created with layers of oils, acrylics, modeling paste and spray paint, feature small symbols — a number, a cowrie shell, silhouettes of the African continent — that only become apparent upon close inspection. Gomez considers the planning of her paintings to be an act of choreography: “I set up my figures [to] flow in and out.” “Set the Atmosphere” will be on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery from March 5 through April 18, marianneboeskygallery.com.
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A Showcase of Imaginative Décor at a Chalet in the Swiss Alps
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| Left: at Hauser & Wirth’s Vieux Chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, an exhibition of design includes a desk and chair by Jacques Adnet, along with a Croisillon lamp designed by Jean-Michel Frank. Right: in one bedroom, mirrors by the French artist and designer Line Vautrin have been added to a rustic wall, while a sardine-shaped cushion from François-Xavier Lalanne adorns the bed. Jean du Sartel |
This week, as the Swiss mountain town of Gstaad hosts its annual art fair, a different type of group exhibition is being held at Vieux Chalet, the gallery Hauser & Wirth’s outpost in the former home of the socialite and collector Gunter Sachs. For the appointment-only show, the Paris-based gallerist Aline Chastel has installed an array of 20th-century design pieces in collaboration with the interior design firm Studio Ellie Peugeot and the art advisory Polimeno. In a library, there’s now a wooden desk with leather accents by the French designer and architect Jacques Adnet; a bedroom features curved Oeuf armchairs by Jean Royère. A trio of François-Xavier Lalanne sheep cluster near an indoor pool.
In Paris, Chastel’s primary residence on Rue de Rivoli doubles as a location for her gallery, Galerie Chastel-Maréchal. She sought to bring that combination of domesticity and artistry to the exhibition in Gstaad. Seeing the design pieces in a residential setting puts them into context for collectors, says James Koch, an executive director and partner at Hauser & Wirth. “It feels like, ‘I never thought I could live with a lamp like this, but it looks actually fantastic.’” On view through Feb. 22, hauserwirth.com.
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Modern Tree Houses on a Danish Island
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| One of the three tree houses that make up the Lovtag retreat on the Danish island of Bornholm. Nina Malling |
On the Danish island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea between northern Germany and the southern tip of Sweden, a cluster of geometric tree houses have joined the historic seaside villages and thatched reed farmhouses. Each one has a nearly 20-foot staircase that leads up an oak tree to a cozy wooden studio space with big windows, a queen-size bed, kitchen and rooftop terrace. The group of three cabins perched in trees on Bornholm makes up the second property from the Danish hospitality brand Lovtag, which previously opened six tree houses near a fjord on Jutland (the island that forms much of Denmark’s mainland). “There are so many people who want to get into close contact with nature but they’re not thrilled to sleep on a blowup mattress in a tent,” says Nanna Balsby, a co-owner. On arrival, Lovtag guests receive a breakfast basket that includes artisanal knackebrod (crisp bread) and apple juice from a local orchard, along with a list of recommended restaurants including Kadeau, known for its seasonal tasting menus. While swimming spots and hiking trails are within easy reach, Balsby has found that the average visitor opts for lazy days amid the oak, birch and fir trees. “Most of our guests just want time for themselves,” she says. From $330 a night, lovtag.dk.
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A New York Gallery Dedicated to South Asian Design
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| Left: House of Santal’s inaugural exhibition, “Edition 1,” includes the Ahmedabad, India-based studio Rhizome’s Lota Coat Stand and Native Console by the Mumbai-based studio Chacko. Right: the Indian designer Karan Desai’s The Monsformer and Fuzzy Bottoms by Studio Nyn, a Mumbai firm. Joe Kramm/courtesy of House of Santal |
The gallery House of Santal, which opens today in New York, was founded to highlight contemporary South Asian design. “For so long, we’ve been the back end of larger companies, with no name and no face,” says the founder Raksha Sanikam, who previously worked in venture capital. “We want to continue that collaboration, but just give artisans recognition.” At House of Santal, an 8,000-square-foot gallery opposite Rockefeller Center, Sanikam is showcasing work by contemporary designers who take a modern approach to centuries-old craft traditions from across the region. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, “Edition 1,” includes the work of 13 Indian designers and studios such as the architect Veeram Shah’s woven swings and Sage Living’s 1,000-pound pyrite dining table made with the kind of inlay work used in the Taj Mahal. “There are craftsmen who have been doing this for generations, but now designers are working with them to come up with pieces that are an amalgamation of the past and present,” says Sanikam. Patrons and enthusiasts can also explore the collections and commission made-to-order pieces on House of Santal’s website. houseofsantal.com.
FROM T’S INSTAGRAM
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| Richard Barnes |
New York was once the city that never sleeps. Now restaurants drop their grates well before midnight. Twenty-four-hour coffee shops and diners are dying. More and more it seems like the lights are on but everybody’s home, in bed. Yet there are some New York artists who still consider nighttime inherent to their practice. Click here to see the full photo essay.
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