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The exterior view of Whatley Manor, a luxury hotel located in the Cotswolds

Looking for a short early spring break in Europe? Look no further than these gems: Whatley Manor in Britain’s Cotswolds, the Ca’ del Dio on Venice’s waterfront, and the Westin Valencia, in a historic building in the heart of the city

Whatley Manor

The Cotswolds in England have become the most fashionable country retreat in the world. This is partly because of it’s history and natural beauty, and partly it’s location, which is just far enough from London to feel remote but not so far that you get bored driving there in your Range Rover from your home in Notting Hill.

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The cosy yet decadent lounge reception at Whatley Manor

But the Cotswolds are much more than just the patch of land between Chipping Norton and Broadway, in which the most frequently spotted wildlife has been become art collectors and beauty influencers from West London.

These hills, valleys and forested plateaux actually stretch in an arc southward for 100 miles towards that other emerging fashionable countryside zone of Somerset.

And it is towards the southern sweep of the Cotswolds arc that we find Whatley Manor. Five minute’s drive from the astonishingly lovely town of Malmesbury with its 900 year old abbey, you approach the Manor along an appropriately long driveway surrounded by gardens and fields.

A view of the stately gardens at Whatley Manor

A wooden drawbridge-style door swings open automatically to lead you into a courtyard where you are met by friendly staff unloading your luggage from your two-seater (we recommend Aston Martin or possibly a Morgan) before parking it out of sight at the side.

Read more: A conversation with artist Enoc Perez

This stately house is located on a ridge, and on the other side a pretty formal garden gives way to a field which in turn drops down to a river, with more fields and forests rising on the riverbank.

A bedroom suite at Whatley Manor

Views are enormously important in any countryside experience and we are continually amazed at the number of country hotels that don’t manage to provide one. But you haven’t experienced this properly until you head to the outdoor hydrotherapy pool, situated in a private spa area with its own garden on the valley side of the hotel.

While you get pummelled by water jets on a starry evening, you are treated to a view of planets, stars and the dark outlines of the hillside and valley opposite. This is a truly unique experience and it is worth the visit for this alone.

The spa area also contains a series of rooms of varying temperatures, so you can go from cool to warm to hot and back again: good for the soul, and certainly stimulating an appetite.

The understated and intimate Michelin-star Dining Room at Whatley Manor

On our first night we dined in the Michelin-starred Dining Room restaurant, an excellently crafted experience which began with cocktails and “yesterday’s bread” – an utterly delicious secret concoction – in the big, accommodating lobby bar area. This was followed by a taster in the show kitchen, chatting to the chefs while watching the brigade of fellow members putting together dinner. Then, a tasting menu in which each ingredient shone, while being enhanced by the technique and skill of the chef: a far more subtle feat than just combining ingredients and sauces. This was soft power at its best.

Read more: A tribute to Don Bryant

That kind of food is wasted if you do it every night, and on our second day we stayed in the lobby area and had an equally superb casual meal of grilled fish, steamed vegetables and some superb English wines.

Guests are offered a tasting menu which highlights each ingredient – in this case, rhubarb – while being enhanced by the technique and skill of the chef

Our room looked out onto the beautifully tended gardens, river and woodland: a suite, with a living room and bedroom separated by a bathroom whose windowside bath probably had the best of view of all. The decor is a modern take on traditional – minimalist walls with little decoration, no chintz, no carpets, an extremely high-quality bed as benefits this hotels Swiss ownership, and a feeling of craft throughout. Too minimal? Some might prefer rugs underfoot and more art on the walls, but nobody can doubt the quality of this endeavour.

As new country house hotels have opened in the Cotswolds, so they have become increasingly hectic and crowded due to the region’s popularity. Whatley Manor feels truly grown up, sophisticated, professionally run, and offers a big and beautiful oasis of tranquillity.

whatleymanor.com

The airy lobby of the 5-star Westin Valencia Hotel

Westin Valencia

Can a city break to a vibrant southern European metropolis also be tranquil? It certainly seemed the case arriving at the Westin Valencia. The hotel is built into the stone walls of a former factory, low rise but with significant feeling, beautifully transformed with a light and airy atrium lobby area, and a stunning courtyard studded with orange trees with tables scattered throughout. Get a room facing the courtyard and you are in complete privacy and peace; our room faced outwards and had a big terrace on which you could spend long afternoons sunbathing.

‘Get a room facing the courtyard and you are in complete privacy and peace’

But that would be a shame as there is so much else to do – even within the hotel itself. The award-winning bar, high ceilinged but perfectly lit and atmospheric, is a place to try adventurous cocktails including some legendary creations made with seafood, and also some excellent more traditional drinks – we enjoyed a Negroni and champagne cocktail.

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We find breakfast is often a test of hotels’ gastronomic intentions and ability. Do they simply stick some stuff on a buffet and hope people enjoy it? In the Westin’s case, breakfast is in a big and light high-ceilinged room looking out onto the courtyard where you can eat in the warmer months.

The living room of the Westin Valencia’s Royal Suite

The buffet was vast and plentiful, as you would expect, but also extremely skilfully put together with high-quality ingredients. Freshly sliced and seasoned salmon, avocado that came with its own salad and garnishes rather than simply dumped on a plate, a huge array of bread, fruits, vegetables…

The best of American generosity and service in a beautifully restored historic building in the heart of one of Europe’s most interesting and vibrant cities? You’d better believe it.

thewestinvalencia.com

The unassuming exterior of Ca’ di Dio hotel, by the Arsenale water bus stop

Ca’ di Dio, Venice

Is there a best location in Venice? The locals and experienced visitors would certainly say so: probably halfway down the grand canal where you have a vista of the stunning palazzo facing you and easy access to all the city’s brilliance.

Read more: Ronnie Kessel’s insider guide to St Moritz

But other icons are also available. Most would probably agree that your ideal place to stay needs to be on the water – it’s a little disappointing being in Venice and having a view of the street.

Ca’ di Dio contains hints of its history as a 15th-century monastery

A visitor needs both history and a view, and for us the location of the Ca’ di Dio hotel is quite astonishing. Alight from your water taxi at the Arsenale water bus stop and your Google Maps tells you are right in front of your hotel. Your eyes, however, may wish to differ.

There are no hotel signs or frontages, nothing at all except a beautiful building many hundreds of years old with odd-shaped windows, facing the water. Look a little more closely, though, and you notice a couple of discreet wooden tables outside the doorway. This is indeed Ca’ di Dio, a converted 15th century monastery.

‘A visitor needs both history and a view’

Walk in, and there is nothing remotely monastic about the style and luxury that greets you in the reception area, with its vaulted ceilings and very 21st century contemporary furniture. We were given a quick tour – the bar is in one wing and the two wings are separated by a tranquil and grassy courtyard bordered by one of the hotel’s restaurants, and our room was in the other wing, the original monastery building.

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Our suite had a perfectly round window, like a porthole, through which one could peer at the locals and tourists ambling along the waterfront, by the lagoon, with the view extending to the various churches, palaces and buildings on outlying islands.

‘The suite, despite its ancient providence, is contemporary and chic’

The changing of the view in the different lights of day, dusk and night was mesmerising, as was the way it changed from blue sky and sunshine to a typically Venetian mist one evening. The suite, despite its ancient providence, is contemporary and chic. There was a cocktail bar, a bathroom straight out of the design fair with a freestanding tub and view both sides, out across the lagoon and the back across the courtyard.

Italian breakfasts, even in luxury hotels, can be little disappointing: it’s as if the culture which is so invested in food at lunch and dinner and times in between just views ‘la colazione’ as an opportunity for some espresso, saltless white bread, a piece of fruit and boiled egg.

Horticulture in the gardens of Ca’ di Dio, where herbs and fresh produce are grown

The alternative in some modern luxury hotels is the full American spread which is not exactly local., But this was a tribute to the imagination and determination of the hotel’s chef – more on whom, later. One entire section was given to home-made cakes and pastries, made fresh every day, not just a token selection but a pastry shop worth of chocolate cakes, fruit tarts, and elaborate pastries and everything in between. Loved it.

Read more: Binith Shah and Maria Sukkar on UMŌ’s ultimate luxury 

The restaurant VERO at Ca’ di Dio is run by Luigi Lionetti, who just won the award for Italy’s greatest chef under 30

But breakfast was just a precursor to dinner – separated of course by a day wandering around Venice. The Dio’s location is refreshing after staying in any hotel crammed in the centre of the narrow laned tourist district. Here, people wander slowly along the wide waterfront towards the Giardini; meanwhile just to one side of the hotel is the access waterway to the grand gates of the Arsenale, once the world’s biggest naval dockyard and the source of the city state’s power hundreds of years ago. You can still feel it now. But back to dinner, which was precursed by a cocktail one of the little tables discreetly placed outside on the promenade.

The restaurant, VERO, is run by Luigi Lionetti, who has just won the award for Italy’s greatest chef under 30. And this was evident in the precision and passion of his cuisine. Lionetti agreed to give us a sneak peek of his kitchen afterwards: certainly, a man on a mission, to judge not just by his creativity and control, but by his age and ambition.

A main meal at the hotel’s restaurant VERO

Ca’ del Dio is an original and hard to classify creation (it opened during the pandemic) on the Venice hotel scene. A stylish, sophisticated, boutique villa, informal and without the weight of the classic luxury hotels, but just as chic, and big enough to have two restaurants, a big courtyard and the sense of being operated by a professional group. The only problem is we think it’s going to be booked out months in advance during the summer and attractions like architecture and art biennale. Book now to avoid disappointment.

cadeldio.com

Artist Enoc Perez in his home, photographed by Maryam Eisler

Borne of 1980s New York amongst the backdrop of Warhol, Basquiat, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Puerto Rican artist Enoc Perez has spent his decades-long career exploring questions of identity, heritage, and the urban landscape. LUX Contributing Editor Maryam Eisler talks to him about love, the ‘second phase of life’, and art in the current climate

Maryam Eisler: We’re sitting in your summer studio in East Hampton.

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Enoc Perez: I call it the two-car garage; it’s a studio where my children used to run in as children. This is also where I learned how to make sculptures. I’ve even made little pastoral paintings, something I would not normally do.

ME: Is it a place of experimentation?

EP: It’s my lab. This is a place where I knew nobody would see anything when I first bought it, so I could work privately.

Enoc Perez’s studio, photographed by Maryam Eisler

ME: Your sanctuary.

EP: Sanctuary it was. It’s also about the dreams you dream of. When I was studying art as a young guy, I would see Picasso’s studios in the South of France with Paloma and Paolo, his children, running around. Think of the pictures of Julian Schnabel, with him coming out of the water. I wanted somewhere with a pool, where I could go swim and come back to the studio and work, with my family around, because I personally don’t like to stop working. I feel guilty when I don’t work!

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ME: You told me earlier that this is now the second phase of life; talk to me about your beginnings.

EP: I came here when I was 19 years old from Puerto Rico. I wanted to come here and my dad insisted on that too – if I was going to study art, I had to go to America. He was right. When I graduated at 22, the whole challenge was how to get seen in a city that has so many artists.

It was 1986. Jean-Michel [Basquiat] was still working. I was there. I witnessed it all.

Enoc Perez’s ‘Luquillo Beach, Puerto Rico’, painted in 2025

ME: What was New York like in the 80s?

EP: It was dangerous. It was crazy. You remember The World? You remember all those clubs? It was so exciting. I didn’t even have a style, because I came from suburbia in Puerto Rico, so I pretty much looked like the Sears catalogue!

ME: You were a clean slate, ready to absorb.

EP: At first, I did my own interpretations of Jean-Michel Basquiat because he was the best. Until I realised that I had to do something that nobody else had attempted or wanted to do, especially as a Puerto Rican. In the early 90s, Felix Gonzalez-Torres started to come to prominence, and he was a game changer – how he saw sculpture and art was mind blowing. I noticed that Felix would be placed into contemporary art auctions, not in Latin American sales. That’s when I decided I didn’t want to be separated.

So, I decided to win the contemporary. Then came questioning of the method. How would I communicate with my audience using a universal language? I looked at Warhol, Rauschenberg, Richard Prince: they all used printmaking in the painting process, especially Warhol and Rauschenberg. That’s when I started doing transfers of drawings.

Enoc Perez’s oil on canvas ‘My Mother’s Kitchen’, 2025

It’s like a primitive way of printing. This gave me the relationship I wanted with the New York masters. I wasn’t using any brushes. It was very American. People at the time said they looked like Warhol silkscreens. My sister was working at Ralph Lauren at the time, and I went to pick her up one day for dinner and I noticed they had a colour copier. I opened the machine and it had four colours, the basic colour separation. I thought it would be cool if I used these colours to make my images too. That’s when I started adding layers to my monochromatic canvases.

ME: And that’s how your personal style developed?

Read more: A tribute to Don Bryant

EP: When I started using colours, I knew I had something. I was throwing a house party once, and people were just getting wasted, but they noticed a little painting hanging on the wall. I thought to myself: ‘okay, this is going to work’. I had these non-art and wasted guys actually talking about my art!

I started making paintings of other people’s girlfriends. I was recently divorced. I was angry, so I would take a picture of a couple and cut the guy out. They were paintings about envy, anger and desire. Everything happens because of love. The architecture came up when I first met my now-wife Carole who was married at the time.

Carole’s heels sitting next to the family swimming pool in East Hampton, photographed by Maryam Eisler

ME: Love is everything.

EP: Isn’t it? It’s probably the most basic motivation. But when you’re already in love you have to become more conceptual and talk about intellectual matters.

So, I met Carole. She was married to some other guy, but I wanted to do a show about her, and I decided to do a show in code. This was 2003. I thought to myself, ‘what am I going to do?’. I have a good library of architecture books. There’s a hotel in Puerto Rico called the Normandie. The story of that hotel goes back to the Puerto Rican guy who built it. He had a French wife – a singer. He built a boat for her, but that didn’t work out, so she wasn’t too impressed. Then he built this building based on the famous Normandie liner boat. I said to myself, ‘I am a Puerto Rican and I’m in love with a French woman. This painting will be a portrait of her’. And that was that!

Read more: In conversation with Henry Lumby of Auriens Chelsea

ME: Tony Shafrazi: tell me about him.

EP: Tony? He came in because of the buildings! The works were intellectual and I knew they would spark an interest in someone like him. This was after 2001; we all became painfully aware of the symbols that architecture signalled. Especially after September 11. My architectural symbols were inspired by love. Then, I started thinking about the Caribbean and Latin America, with all their international modernist buildings with beautiful architecture – all symbols of colonisation.

A close-up of Perez’s materials found in his studio, photographed by Maryam Eisler

ME: When did Tony notice your work?

EP: I had a German dealer at the time who took me to Art Basel. He called me and told me ‘Oh, these two guys bought your paintings – all of them!’. He wouldn’t tell me who at first. Anyway, months went by and then he told me, ‘Well, it was Peter Brant and Tony Shafrazi’. At that time, I was starting to join forces with Elizabeth Dee in New York, so she put Tony in contact with me, and the rest is history. Tony even came to our wedding.

ME: Do you regard Shafrazi as your godfather?

EP: He’s a godfather to a lot of artists. But, for me, he was my refinement school. He’s the guy who tells me, ‘No, you cannot do that’, or, ‘Think about it a little more’, or, ‘Challenge me’. He understands art like no one I know. Peter Brant, too. We became friends; Peter commissioned a portrait of Stephanie Seymour. These two men are blessings in my life.

ME: Let’s move to your paintings of beautiful sensual women. You told me that you felt there’s no room for showing these works now? Why not?

EP: I would get killed. I mean, I’m a 56-year-old straight guy. It doesn’t look good and people would criticise me.

‘Ponce Intercontental’, 2023. For Perez, architecture is richly embedded with symbols of love, as well as modernism and colonialism

ME: Do you self-censor?

EP: Well, there’s some degree of self-censoring. But with art, you can store it and bring it out when the time is right. Carlo Mollino has been an inspiration; he found a way to show the female nude in his polaroids in a tasteful and carnal way. There is always that fine line between good and bad taste, and I love him for walking that line.

ME: So, elegant and sensual can go hand in hand?

EP: Yes – look at Mollino’s interiors and what he was able to accomplish with them. He made beautiful polaroids that were found after he died. They will remain a mystery and I think of them as ghosts. Even in my own paintings inspired by his work, I soon thought to myself, ‘Oh my god, they look like ghosts’. They’re an archetype, and as we know, all creativity stems from the female.

‘After Mollino (18)’ by Enoc Perez (2019), inspired by Mollino’s ghost-like polaroids and interiors

ME: Female is creation. Female gives birth. Female inspires.

EP: Yes, quite literally. If you look at Mollino’s national theatre in Torino, it looks like a vagina – the most beautiful thing. It’s also very powerful.

ME: Do you think the art world looks down on all matters ‘beautiful’?

EP: Seduction is mostly looked down upon, at least in my experience in the art world. The current moment reminds me of the mid-90s, when art became so political. My attitude to that was, and still is, that I think it’s necessary. Personally, I want to inspire. I want to make art that has soul. That, to me, is more mysterious than making just a statement or offering a one-liner. I am active politically in my community, but art is about love for me.

‘Untitled’ made by Perez with oil on canvas in 2024

ME: I also sense this idea of bygone past, some sort of melancholic nostalgia in your work, or a nod to sentimental elegance of the past which we seem to have lost today.

EP: I don’t know if it’s nostalgia. I think it’s about wanting to reclaim a time that only belongs to me.

ME: Your representation of this time looks a bit disjointed, like fragmented memories.

EP: It’s fractured, kind of like myself. When I started to do the Rum Paintings, for example, those were self-portraits. I was an alcoholic at the time.

ME: When did you become sober?

EP: When I had my first son, Leo. My wife went on a girls night out, and I stayed behind to take care of him. I almost dropped him while I was changing his diaper because I was so drunk. The day after, I made an appointment with a psychiatrist. It turns out that I’m OCD, and I was self-medicating. I’m now 17 years sober, and I can only now revisit my paintings from that time.

Perez in his studio, with his process captured by Maryam Eisler

ME: Addiction undeniably is very present in the creative community. What has sobriety done for you? How has it affected your life and work?

EP: The positive side is that sobriety allowed me to be a normal, better father to my children. Also, it has allowed me to properly look at my work in greater depth. I did a project for the Dallas Contemporary about the architect Philip Johnson. When I started studying him and found out about his Nazi activity, I called Tony [Shafrazi] and told him ‘I don’t know if I can do this. This guy was a piece of shit’. He replied, ‘I agree with how you feel, but it’s your job as an artist to critique and to tell the story’. That allowed me to get through the show, but afterwards, I didn’t want to do any more architecture paintings. Think about Johnson’s Glass House. The Glass House is an important piece of architecture for American culture. It was inspired by a house bombed to the ground that Johnson saw while visiting a Hitler rally in Poland. I mean come on!

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ME: Where do you find your inspiration today?

EP: I did some of my best paintings in my thirties, so how do I access the person that I was then? That was part of turning 50. At this point, I am competing against myself!

ME: But you are painting as you did, with sobriety. The canvas is ultimately your own skin. I am very intrigued by your use of calligraphy; even that is of the past.

‘Untitled’, 2024, oil on canvas

EP: Maybe I am allowing myself to do that more today. I am having a show in Hong Kong with Ben Brown with my Rum Paintings and I have used words like ‘Go Bananas’, encouraging the alcoholic to get worse! Or ‘it’s nice to know you’re loved amongst friends’ shown with empty bottles. Poetic, right?

ME: Poetic while it’s happening. Perhaps not so poetic the day after!

EP: I also still love the old advertisements. They look like Morandi’s still lives; they’re just like pop art. But ultimately, I like the landscapes because they’re very real, like fragmented memories. The landscape is the only thing for me that is real. And I see it as mine. The Caribbean is mine.

ME: At the end of the day, it’s your world, your imagination, your brain! You allow yourself that privilege. In this world of ours, you cannot control a lot of things. One thing you can control is you.

EP: Understanding the moment, I understand the freedom of being exactly who I think I am.

Don Bryant, the creator of Bryant Estate in California’s Napa Valley

Although they may not know his name, every wine lover in the world has cause to remember Don Bryant, who died earlier this month

Bryant, a successful entrepreneur, was the creator of Bryant Estate in California’s Napa Valley. He turned a hillside high above the valley, surrounded by forests and cooled by the nearby Lake Hennessy, into such a global reference for red wine that the world’s most powerful wine critic, Robert Parker, commented: “The wine from [Bryant’s] hillside vineyard near Napa’s Pritchard Hill has already become mythical. This is a wine of world-class quality, and is certainly as complete and potentially complex as any first-growth Bordeaux. It is not too much to suggest that Bryant’s Pritchard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon might well be one of the wines that redefines greatness in Cabernet Sauvignon.” 

The Bryant Estate vineyard

Anyone trying Bryant Estate and its sister wine Bettina – named after his wife, Bettina, who survives him and runs the estate – is inevitably struck by its complexity and poetry.  

Read more: A conversation with architect Thomas Croft

Don Bryant’s life and interests were as rich as his wines: as well as being one of the most successful financial services entrepreneurs, he was a major philanthropist and art collector, listed as one of the top 200 collectors in the world by Art News. A true aficionado, his support encompassed art institutions, schools and universities. 

Don Bryant with his wife, Bettina Bryant

Bettina Bryant is also a major collector, art historian and supporter of artistic causes. Don Bryant’s legacy will shine on, and as a founder of one of the world’s new great wine estates, it is likely his name will be associated with craft and excellence for decades and centuries to come. 

Darius Sanai

Henry Lumby, the Chief Commercial Officer at Auriens

Chief Commercial Officer at Auriens, Henry Lumby is developing a future in independent luxury later life living. Later living remains a nascent sector in the UK, trailing behind the models in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. LUX talks to Lumby about his vision for independent later living in Auriens Chelsea

LUX: Property is often said to be a people business, how have you grown your network as your career has evolved?

Henry Lumby: I began my career in residential agency, which was a great base from which to start growing my network and developing a strong understanding of the residential market as a whole.

However, early exposure to later living developments sparked my interest and from then on, I was deeply committed to working within the sector and championing it in the UK, where it was very much in its infancy.

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My passion to change the way in which later living and retirement communities are seen in this country led me to look overseas, where the sector is much more mature. Through travel to Australia, Europe and the US, I was able to grow my network on a global scale and across the sector’s various fields, making connections in investment and development through to marketing and operation teams. I value all the connections I have made throughout my career and think collaboration and sharing of insights are key to the success and evolution of the sector.

The lobby at Auriens Chelsea, offering residents ‘a serviced, secure home that has all the benefits of a five-star hotel’

LUX: How did you leverage this range of experience to offer a model for investing in the later living sector?

HL: I benefited from working on the ground within later living developments early on in my career and from being able to pinpoint the shortcomings of the product and offer at that time. I was able to identify how the model needed to be adapted and improved upon, so that residents would be proud to call a later living community home and the alignment between investors and residents in later living communities would be improved.

Read more: A conversation with architect Thomas Croft

Some of my greatest learnings have come from meeting operators, funders and residents in overseas communities, but also through learnings during the early days of my career, many of which have been instrumental in the choices we have made at Auriens. For instance, our apartments incorporate taps that are specifically designed to be suitable for people with arthritis; I saw how successfully this had worked on a Dorset scheme delivered in 2010 and so included it in the specification for Auriens whilst I was a consultant for the development at Savills.

When working with Helical in a management consultancy position, I was preparing their Renaissance Villages product for sale to Legal & General and looked at innovations taking place within the Australian sector. Their focus on hospitality and a first-class service offering had proved very successful with residents and so I integrated that into the Renaissance Villages business model.

The residents lounge at Auriens Chelsea

LUX: Is there a successful formula for high end later living?

HL: To create a successful later living community, it must allow its residents to age in place and thrive whilst doing so. Operating at the higher end of the sector means that residents expect world-class amenities, seamless service and peace of mind that their homes and wider environment are being maintained to the very highest standards.

However, the most important aspects of our role are in the creation of a community at Auriens Chelsea and affording our residents an enviable lifestyle that they want to recommend to their friends. We strive to ensure that every aspect of our residents’ wellbeing is considered, from their mental and physical health to their social life, creating opportunities for them to naturally forge lasting relationships, both with other residents and also with the Auriens team.

Later living is still a nascent sector here in the UK, whereas overseas, particularly in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, they have developed very well-established, successful models that the UK can follow and aspire to.

Auriens is located in the heart of London’s Chelsea village just behind the Kings Road

LUX: What does Auriens do differently to others in the sector?

HL: The wellbeing offering at Auriens Chelsea is second-to-none. We developed a pioneering program in partnership with the team at the Kyros Project, which is led by ex-athletes and top nutritionists, including Gideon Remfry, one of the top 25 trainers in the world according to Men’s Fitness, and Aidan Goggins, creator of the Sirtfood diet. All our residents are offered an assessment with the wellbeing team when they move in, who then create a completely bespoke fitness and nutritional plan that looks at all aspects of health including brain health, gut health, sleep and physical mobility. The results are truly remarkable. We are creating our very own blue zone!

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We also offer care at various levels to our residents through Draycott Nursing & Care, an Auriens Group-owned company. Being able to scale our care offering and give residents complete convenience and flexibility supports our residents to age well in place.

Many later living communities in the UK only offer the chance to either purchase or rent an apartment, whereas at Auriens, we responded to market demand and adapted our model so that residents now have the choice of purchasing their apartment or long-term rental.

Auriens ensures that later life living is as comfortable as it is entertaining, providing residents with a luxury private cinema

Since introducing the purchase option we found that prospective residents want to make a long-term commitment and are far more familiar with home ownership. Additionally, our ‘try before you buy’ service is a very popular way to sample life at Auriens and the exceptional service and friendly community we offer.

LUX: Who do you most appeal to most in terms of buyer, demographic, needs, wants, etc.?

HL: Many of our buyers are local to the Chelsea area and want to stay here to be close to friends and family and to be part of the ‘community within a community’ at Auriens. Whilst they want to continue to live independently, their family homes have often become unmanageable and they are looking for a serviced, secure home that has all the benefits of a five-star hotel. We see a mix of single buyers and couples and most are aged over 70.

LUX: Let’s talk about location: how important is it to your purchasers and their families?

Residents enjoy luxury facilities, such as the pool and wellness area at Auriens Chelsea

HL: Location is very important to our buyers. We recently conducted a survey on what the older generation look for when moving home and the results showed that 64% of those aged over 65 highly value living near cultural or leisure attractions. Given that our residents are often moving from close-by, they know Chelsea very well and want to enjoy all the benefits that our location on Dovehouse Street, moments from the Kings Road, offers. The area is known for its excellent shopping, restaurants, cultural destinations and green spaces, as well as catering to practical needs with several leading hospitals found throughout the borough.

Read more: At the ICE St Moritz, the world’s most glamorous car show

LUX: What is to come for Auriens, are you looking to acquire more sites?

HL: It has been a successful start to 2025 at Auriens Chelsea, as we have recently agreed a number of apartment sales and rentals, demonstrating a strong sense of positivity and movement in the market. The wider Auriens Group is primed for growth this year and beyond, with strong financial backing in place and a dynamic leadership team that is committed to the scaling of our platform and expansion into new sites in the UK and potentially internationally. Plans for our second community are underway in Weybridge, Surrey, on a beautiful site adjacent to St George’s Hill private estate.

aurienschelsea.com

Held in Switzerland’s Engadin alpine valley, The ICE shows some of the most desirable classics slide across a frozen lake

The ICE in St. Moritz transforms a frozen lake into one of the most glamorous Concours d’elegance on earth. The crowd? A mix of Cresta Run daredevils, classic car collectors, and the fashion elite, all drawn to this blend of horsepower, mountains, and high-altitude glamour. The so-called “Top of the world” this year hosted the most successful iteration ever of what is fast becoming known as the greatest high society car show in the world (with quite a few dogs thrown in). Fabienne Amez-Droz visits the ICE, captures the event photographically for LUX, and recalls her experience below

“Imagine seeing some of the most extraordinary classic cars in the world, drifting across a frozen lake in the heart of the Alps. It might feel like a dream, but in reality, you’re at the ICE St. Moritz. And this year’s event was truly the most spectacular one yet – sunshine, champagne, a great curation of cars and a lot of fun!

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The I.C.E. St. Moritz officially launched in February 2022. The event was becoming a big success over the last few years, proving that even the harshest winter conditions are no obstacle to the cars and collectors. It is a two-day event, kicking off with an exclusive preview, giving visitors a rare chance to get up close to some of the world’s most stunning classic cars and have conversations with the car owners.

Read more: Ronnie Kessels insider guide to St Moritz

On the second day, the event gets even more exciting. The cars that were just on display the day before now drive and slide across the ice. At the end of that day, there is the Concours d’elegance award ceremony and this year’s “Best in Show” trophy was designed by British architect and St. Moritz regular, Lord Norman Foster. After two full days on the ice, the true St. Moritz crowd has dinner at the Badrutts Palace and celebrate the success of the ICE event at Günter Sachs’ legendary Dracula Club.

The next morning, real ice comes in useful for the hangovers; although the tough guys and girls are up and out early on Corviglia, the Cresta run, or blasting their Ferrari 275 GTB/4 down the Engadine valley.”

The ICE Co-Founder, Ronnie Kessel and Fabienne Amez-Droz on the spectator grandstand. Ronnie is the proprietor of Kessel, the Lugano based cars empire

Swiss car collector king Fritz Burkard won Pebble Beach “Best of Show” in 2024. At the ICE he showcased another car from his Pearl Collection

Read more: Car collector king Fritz Burkard on his Pearl Collection

Fritz Burkard’s spaceship-looking, FIAT ABARTH from his Pearl Collection

An extraordinary array of some of the world’s most valuable classics

Fabienne Amez-Droz with British car collector and expert Simon Kidston at the Richard Mille hospitality tent

During the preview day, you could get a close up of the classic cars and have conversations with the car owners

At the exclusive drivers’ lounge you can see the famous ICE-skating wait staff

Ferrari’s classic Daytona is challenging enough to drive on a dry road. On a frozen lake at 1800m altitude, it’s something else

Our intrepid photographer and reporter Fabienne Amez-Droz wearing vintage-style Moon Boots to match the machinery

A few four-legged friends tried to steal the show from the cars – this one wearing the best fur coat of the day

Loro Piana brought its own classic car to the show

The very high level of the cars in the competition made the work of the jury complex, called to select the best in each of the 5 categories

Casa Ferrari hosted some events at the famous Kulm Country Club

Only one of these Ferraris, the Purosangue, second from the front, is really made for driving on snow and ice; the others would be more at home in Monaco

Find out more: theicestmoritz.ch

The elegant Spanish colonial facade of the Boca Raton Hotel

Nestled in the heart of Boca Raton, Florida, the Boca Raton Hotel and Resort has been a beacon of style for a century. During our recent stay, we were lodged at the newly created imagined Collection Tower Suites, aimed to keep the resort at the top of the Florida luxury world. This revitalised tower offers panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Florida coastline, making it an unforgettable destination, says Isabel Phillips

Upon arrival at the Boca Raton, you are greeted warmly by the staff and the slice of architectural history that is held within the hotel. The original Addison Mizner Development, known as the Cloister Inn, has been preserved throughout the resort’s many developments. Mizner’s work forever changed the face of Palm Beach, bringing over the Spanish colonial style of architecture which includes barrel roof tiles, columned pathways leading to courtyards, cast stone doors, as well as open floor plans to bring the outside in and create a flow among the hotel’s spaces.

An aerial view of the Boca Raton’s Harborside Pool Club

The highlight of staying in the tower is the exclusive access to the Top of the Tower. Here, guests can enjoy breakfast with breathtaking 360-degree views of the resort and beyond. This serene experience sets the perfect tone for a day of relaxation and indulgence.

Read more: Binith Shah and Maria Sukkar on UMŌ’s ultimate luxury 

The brand-new Tower Collection Suites redefine what it means to feel at home while traveling. Our room was light, airy, and spacious, with stunning views of the 450-foot lazy river and the Hillsboro River, which stretches all the way down to mainland Miami. These suites provide a spacious living and common area, creating the ambiance of a private apartment. Whether you are hosting a guest or savouring solitude, the suites cater to all needs.

A master bedroom of the Boca Raton’s Tower Suite Collection

Light fixtures within the entire apartment were a highlight. With pre-made settings from “relax” to “wake up” and more, your mood is fully customisable with the touch of a button, conveniently placed by your bedside. The interior design of the suites is a harmonious blend of green marble and dark wood accents, exuding a sense of opulence. The tall ceilings and expansive windows enhance the feeling of grandeur, making you feel larger than life. Every detail has been meticulously curated to offer a perfect balance of comfort and style.

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The Suite Collection epitomises luxury, including personalised butler and concierge services to tailor any needs you may have during your stay.

Luxury golf experience at the Boca Raton

Beyond the private amenities of the tower, guests can enjoy access to a multitude of restaurants, each designed to take your taste buds on a journey around the world. The iconic Sadelles to start the day with their iconic French toast and customisable bagel menu, swiftly onto The Japanese restaurant, in particular, offers an intimate setting with an inclusive open bar, allowing guests to fully immerse themselves in authentic Japanese dining culture. Starting with the miso soup, followed by the O’toro and salmon sashimi, each bite is a testament to culinary excellence. The sashimi, so fresh and delicate, melted in my mouth faster than the ice cream on a warm Florida day.

Read more: A conversation with architect Thomas Croft

For daytime adventures, a leisurely ride across Lake Boca Raton to lunch at Marisol is a must. Despite the British weather that followed our journey, outdoor seating and seafood towers brightened up the day. Fresh fish, oysters, and more adorned our taste buds, even as the sun remained hidden. A highlight from the Marisol experience is their signature seafood tower, which features an exquisite assortment of the freshest seafood, creating a visual and culinary delight.

‘Guests can enjoy access to a multitude of restaurants, each designed to take your taste buds on a journey around the world’

For daytime relaxation, guests can gain access to the Spa Palmera, which was awarded 5 stars by Forbes Travel Guide in 2023 and 2024. The 50,000-square-foot spa transports you from the Florida coastline to the grandeur of Spain’s Alhambra Palace. My morning treatment started with a quick trip to the changing room and common area, where guests and members can wait to be called for their treatment. Here you can find drinks, snacks, and books all next to a roaring fireplace. My treatment included a Turkish bath, where the lovely staff take you through a journey. A perfectly checked temperature bath awaited me, covered in rose petals, with scrubs and soaps waiting on the side. As I enjoyed the relaxing sound of the water running, we were brought sorbet and refreshments. Never had sorbet in the bath, but I highly recommend it! The cafe menu is clean and concise; turmeric juice coupled with a tapas arrangement of sliced seared tuna, artichoke, and a take on a Greek salad was my choice for the day.

A pool side view from the new $133 million Beach Club hotel

Staying at the Boca Raton Hotel and Resort, particularly in the Tower Suites, is more than just an accommodation; it is an experience of luxury redefined. From the awe-inspiring views to the thoughtfully designed interiors and world-class dining options, every aspect of the stay is crafted to provide an unparalleled sense of indulgence.

Read more: BMW M760e long-term review

I eagerly await my return to the Boca Hotel Resort, who have just invested a gargantuan $133 million into a reimagining of their Beach Club hotel. The culinary excellence continues, with Marisol again taking centre stage, and new restaurant Onda featuring ocean views and spotlighting guest chefs each winter, and debuting with no less than Adriano Venturini of Eden Roc Cap Cana. As Palm Beach’s only private beach resort, a stay at the Beach Club hotel promises to be as unforgettable as my stay at the Boca Raton.

thebocaraton.com

Luxury entrepreneur Binith Shah with LUX Senior Contirbuting Editor Maria Sukkar

Luxury entrepreneur Binith Shah had a vision: to create the most luxurious duvets in the world, using environmentally-friendly methods, for use by the most discerning clients. LUX Senior Contributing Editor Maria Sukkar speaks with Shah about the nature of luxury, how to create a best-in-class product optimised for private jets, premium residences and yachts, and what makes a happy Eider duck. 

Maria Sukkar:  The word UMŌ evokes warmth, comfort, and softness, while also carrying a poetic quality that heightens sensory experiences – much like the French use parfum to describe an ice cream flavour. What led you to choose UMŌ Paris as the name for your brand?

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Binith Shah: I’ve always been enamoured with the French culture and my heart and background are in bespoke fashion, couture, and luxury. I also love Japan: how everything that the Japanese do is precise, thoughtful, and simple. Umō is the Japanese word for down, so I just combined the essence of both and decided that UMŌ Paris would be the brand.

‘I learned the importance of prioritising the craftsmen, because without them, there is no business’ – Binith Shah

MS: Do you think exposure to diverse cultures and communities drives discovery?

BS: I was born in Kenya, raised in Seattle, met my wife in New York, lived in Florence for 12 years in between a year and London, then shifted to LA the last 12 years!  My father was also a curious entrepreneur whose passion led into dealing in oriental rugs, which evolved into one of the largest carpet showrooms in Seattle.  It fascinated me that he would travel to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and return with stories of the craftsmen and artisans who would spend months or even a year to create just one rug for his showroom.  Community is a huge part of how I think about business.

MS:  It’s similar for me – I’m originally Lebanese with family scattered across the world, including my mother and brother in Beirut and my sister in Dubai. What led you into the creative industries?

Read more: A conversation with architect Thomas Croft

BS:  My journey really began when I met my wife, Elizabeth, when she was a top designer for Armani, Sonia Rykiel and Ungaro. I moved to New York to join her, and we went on to create a very high-end luxury shoe and handbag business. Our philosophy was to differentiate ourselves from other brands with bespoke offerings, so we developed a 3D foot scanner, which would take hundreds of intricate measurements of our clients’ feet, customise a last, and manufacture a pair of shoes in a matter of weeks, versus a minimum of six months.

We launched Rickard Shah in the September issue of American Vogue and immediately received significant A-list celebrity customers who were keen to invest in footwear tailored to their individual style and needs.  As a result, we were very fortunate to have one of the largest luxury conglomerates among our primary investors.  We were highly successful, with long waitlists, eventually disrupted by the financial crisis of 2008. Our bijou atelier was forced to close, and I learned the importance of prioritising the craftsmen, because without them, there is no business.

Each luxury duvet features UMŌ Paris’ signature embroidery of the Eider duck wing

MS: As an entrepreneur how did you move into sustainable luxury?

BS: It happened while we were in London during the financial crisis, with a Knightsbridge flagship boutique and our young daughter.  We felt the current method of tanning leather accessories was not as environmentally friendly as it could be and sought solutions. We conceived of a sustainable solution, which led us to create a company in Florence called Green Dot, which produced the very first biodegradable and sustainable TPU. TPU is a soft resin, which is the key component of sneaker soles or flip-flops. Logistically, it made sense for our family to relocate to the US, where our resin was manufactured.

Read more: BMW M760e long-term review

We successfully exited Green Dot following three-years’ of founding the start-up. Through that venture, this confirmed we could deliver a sustainable luxury product, which became a stepping-stone to into various new chapters and ultimately led me to where we are now.

MS:  How did you develop a concept for sustainable luxury duvets?

BS:  A sabbatical afforded me the opportunity to consider deeply what I had learned and what was important to me. This was creating a bespoke product that was both ultra-luxurious and sustainable, serving a niche need that had not been addressed. I read about the hypoallergenic and thermal properties of Eider down and could not understand why no one was working with this magical material in an elevated manner.

‘With UMŌ Paris it is about the craftsmen and the caretakers of a beautiful Eider duck sanctuary’ – Binith Shah

My preliminary research indicated there were cottage industries in Iceland, Norway, and Canada creating niche duvet brands. I tested everything. I am passionate about supporting craftsmen, artisans, sustainability and collaborating with incredible people. This time, I wanted to create something focused, where I would have full control over the mission and the message. Everything about the story spoke to a sustainable luxury venture.

MS: Where did you see the sweet spot for you, as an entrepreneur?

BS: The way I have always worked is to think ‘Where is the need? Where is the pain?’  If you have neither, you cannot achieve it, someone bigger will do it better.  When I incorporated UMŌ Paris, I partnered with a private aviation specialist, Jay McGrath. I knew that ultra-affluent clients expect an unparalleled experience and they need optimum sleep in their aircraft cabin.

Read more: Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann on the watch industry

With limited storage space and a pressurised cabin, size and weight are the pain points. These duvets can be stowed on your G650 without requiring extra equipment for vacuum packing. Further, for every kilo saved in weight, there is a saving of around 15,000 tons of carbon over a jet’s lifetime. We launched our Aviator collection with one of the largest jet charter companies, and immediately accessed a network of demand from 270 jets.

We also created our hand-crafted Fjord and Maison lines for premium residences and yachts. A luxury lifestyle brand is about creating a meaningful experience, it is not like queuing for a bag on Rodeo Drive.  Once experiencing our duvets, our clients describe a cloud-like sensation and a quality of sleep they’ve never had before.  They share that experience with their family and friends, and the brand is growing by word-of-mouth.

‘Located in Iceland’s Fljótin Skagafjörður on the edge of the Arctic Circle on the Tröllaskagi Peninsula, this protected land has been in the stewardship of one family for 80 years, over three generations’ – Binith Shah

MS: It is a great model, how do you frame that experience?

BS:  We start the journey with the narrative. Then it is shared authentically through influential advocates. You could be at a dinner, and someone mentions their discovery of this amazing product out there, which is not only in an extremely limited supply, but also champions sustainability through artisans and community.

MS:  What is it about Iceland in particular that resonated with you?

BS:  I had to identify the most premium Eider down. With UMŌ Paris it is about the craftsmen and the caretakers of a beautiful Eider duck sanctuary.  In Iceland, the eider ducks have been protected by the Icelandic Government for well over a century.  Sanctuary owners have experience and proven business models, monitoring and reporting duck numbers to the government.

I researched the Icelandic sanctuary owners and selected a sanctuary that was in synch with my ethos. Located in Iceland’s Fljótin Skagafjörður on the edge of the Arctic Circle on the Tröllaskagi Peninsula, this protected land has been in the stewardship of one family for 80 years, over three generations.  The young owner invited me on a site visit, loved our story, understood the potential markets, and immediately partnered.

UMŌ Paris duvets are filled with the premium and sustainable Eider down from Iceland

MS: Where did you come up with the idea of UMŌ Paris as a responsible luxury brand?

BS:  Through our network, Elizabeth and I found a fifth generation, 150-year-old certified B Corp atelier in Chablis, France. Upon presenting our business model to the owner, we were aligned in our mission to create a rare sustainable luxury duvet.

MS:  How did UMŌ Paris show rarity and authenticity from the get-go?

BS:  The meticulous and labour-intensive process results in an annual total yield of only an estimated 8,900 pounds/4,000 kilograms worldwide. At current values, this makes Eider down around 6 times rarer than rough mined diamonds! We use 6-8% of the global supply and our production is limited to 350-500 duvets annually. Unlike our competitors, we only use Pure Arctic Eiderdown, the lighter, finer down. Our duvet requires 65 hours to make, from gathering the down to transporting it and producing the finished duvet. Our product is born wild, never farmed.

Read more: Simon de Pury interviews Olafur Eliasson

MS:  Given the precision and care involved, can you truly say this process is cruelty-free?

BS:  Absolutely. We collect the nest at the right time, when the eggs laid are nearly hatched and don’t need the incubation of the nest. The skilled caretakers gently pick up the Eider duck, gather the nest, handpick-out the down, and then put the duck back on the nest for the final days before the eggs hatch.  The method in which most goose and duck down are normally processed involves the birds being live-plucked up to 17 times, then finally slaughtered for food.

That’s the process for the world’s premier brands’ luxury down jackets and that method consumes around 270 million kilos of down a year versus only 4,000 kilos of Eider down. Our process is completely cruelty-free, gentle and kind.  The fledglings leave their nests, immediately return to the sea for approximately 11 months, until they return to the sanctuary to moult their down into the nests and lay their eggs. The ducks’ number is monitored by the sanctuary caretakers.

‘Eider down is 100% hypoallergenic with no feathers or quills present.  It is ultra-light and maintains your body temperature while you’re sleeping’ – Binith Shah

Mother Nature plays a very key role in this natural product. Weather conditions, sea levels and other natural phenomena all contribute to the annual yield – and underscores the need for preservation. That is all part of the impressive story. We also donate 10% of profits back to the conservationists to continue preservation and education.

MS: What is UMŌ Paris’ point of difference, compared with other niche brands using eider down?

BS:  Our differentiator is that we only use Pure Arctic Eiderdown, partner with a Certified B-Corporation atelier, and design with intent. Competitors fill their duvets with components that are 90% eiderdown, 10% goose down.  However, they still charge for 100% Eiderdown, so Eiderdown is often used as a marketing play.  Our sustainable process also assures quality because eider down is 100% hypoallergenic with no feathers or quills present.  It is ultra-light and maintains your body temperature while you’re sleeping.  This is achieved also because of thoughtful design.

Normal duvets are subdivided into square baffles, to hold in place the loose down and eventually it slips down into these pockets. Eider down has miniscule hooks so it cannot slip, allowing it to be cohesive and not separate. We designed a series of square baffles across the top end of the duvet slip, then add long vertical channels to allow air to circulate through the length. This open technique maximises airflow, which maintains body temperature.

MS:  Where are you on your sustainability journey?

BS:  In fact, we’re now in the process of applying for B Corp certification, both to demonstrate transparency that we are using sustainable methods of gathering and to highlight that we are partnered with the B Corp manufacturer in Chablis.  There are no guidelines, but we are taking the right steps to acknowledge the sustainability aspect of what we’ve created – which is collaborating to make a positive impact on the community, animals, and the planet.

UMŌ Paris’ founder Binith Shah holds his ultra-luxury duvet stuffing

MS:  Can you share your vision for enhancing impacts?

BS:  We are exploring how we can learn from other industries. For example, when we lived for 12 years in Italy, when it is the season for olive oil harvest, the farmers use a communal press called a frantoia. They tap-in their appointment times, these multi-generational farmers sit chatting during the pressing, families compare oil, colour and qualities. Producers may keep or opt to sell-on their product direct from the press.  That’s what we want to do in Iceland. We want to create a communal hub to process the down quicker and pay the sanctuary owners faster. Normally, companies place orders and the sanctuaries are paid 45-90 days later. For us, as soon as our down is ready, we place our bulk order, and we pay for it up-front. Our goal is to take a thought leadership role, where our goal is to secure our allotment and build goodwill, while encouraging the promotion of the sanctuaries and Iceland.

Read more: How collecting unites lovers of wine, art, watches and cars, with Penfolds

MS:  Lastly, what do you think about transformational travel, where people can experience their impact throughout the hospitality journey from arrival to venue to departure, subliminally absorbing the values as they sleep under an UMŌ Paris duvet?

BS: There is a shift in luxury travel, where experiences are paramount. Fortunately, our brand is niche and is aligned with the heightened sense of awareness surrounding more transformational travel. The sanctuary is not and will never be a ‘destination’, however, knowing the journey of a product is more and more important to clients. We’re inspired by the adventurers who truly value responsible travel and a novel experience through the fjords in the Arctic rather than sailing their superyacht through the Med in June! We are proud to be part of this important conversation, and that the ultra-affluent are excited to learn more and join us in this journey.

umo-paris.com

@umo-paris

Maryam Eisler photographs Thomas Croft in the Skarstedt Gallery space in London

Architect Thomas Croft founded his firm in 1995, and has since designed spaces for fine art institutions, London’s great estates, and beyond. In conversation with LUX Chief Contributing Editor Maryam Eisler, he tells us about building the art world

Maryam Eisler: Tom you are closely linked to the art world, whether its to do with projects related to its patrons, the galleries, or the artists. How did this close association develop?

Thomas Croft: The first artists I ever met were Rose Wylie and her husband Roy Oxlade, who at the time were pretty unknown, and my first ever job was in the 1980s designing their home studio.

Before starting my own office, the architects I worked for often did art projects; after graduating from the RCA my first job was in New York for Richard Meier who had just won the Getty Center in LA. Then back in London I worked for Rick Mather who had just got his first gallery job for Leslie Waddington in Cork Street. After that I worked on the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin for John Pawson, and also with some of John’s great collector clients like Joe and Marie Donnelly. Being able to collaborate with creative patrons who had such high-level architectural objectives was a bit of a revelation for me at the time.

Plans for Skarstedt Gallery London by Thomas Croft Architects

When I started working on my own, quite a few of my jobs were art-related. The first was Timothy Taylor’s original gallery, and then subsequently Ordovas Art on Savile Row, David Gill on Duke Street, and Sotheby’s New Bond Street where we were master-planners for a long time. We’ve done a couple of galleries for Skarstedt, first on Old Bond Street and then on Bennet Street. We also designed Per Skarstedt’s flat in the historic Albany building in Piccadilly, where we’ve worked extensively. And of course there’s often a cross-over between art collector and art world professional projects; Yana Peel’s London family home is a good example.

Read more: Is this the greatest wine collaboration ever?

We’re currently reworking Cromwell Place’s arts hub in South Kensington; it was originally designed by others but constraints beyond their control conspired to make the layout feel very confusing. We’re moving the front door to a completely different street to simplify the user experience and greatly improving the hospitality offering. There’s going to be a big relaunch this Spring and it’s been fun working on a much bigger scale than a normal stand-alone commercial gallery.

Cromwell Place’s Arts Hub in London, redesigned by Thomas Croft Architects

ME: What was the first experience that sparked your interest in architecture?

TC: It was as simple as meeting architects as a child. They seemed like nice people, lived in nice houses, and it seemed like a nice thing to do.  But I also remember being fascinated by how the world looked on a macro scale – why did a Swiss house look different from an English one?

ME: Your work has a distinct and recognisable aesthetic to it. Simple, elegant lines with a focus on volumetric spaces that invite light. How flexible are you when it comes to evolving or adapting that style?

TC: We believe in a style for the job; we’re always trying to assess the client and the site in order to evolve what works best, which in dense urban situations often also involves simultaneously bringing the local planners along for the ride.

Thomas Croft photographed by Maryam Eisler, in the realised Skarstedt London space

We work on a lot of historic 18th and 19th century buildings which inevitably requires a certain stylistic adaptability. Our biggest ever project, in terms of cost, has been a recent renovation of a Fitzroy Square house originally designed in 1790 by Robert Adam. By the early 20th century it was the Omega Workshop’s HQ and then later it became an NHS foot hospital in which all the original Adam design had been stripped out. Our job was to create a historically authentic but totally new speculative Adam interior that also worked beautifully as a modern family home.

The exterior of the Royal Yacht Squadron, photographed by Richard Davies

ME: What was the first building that truly captivated you — where you stood, observed, and felt deeply connected to its essence?

Read more: Top chefs on how to be sustainable

TC: At school I did an A-Level thesis on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Houses. I can’t say that Wright has been a big influence subsequently, but of course he was a towering genius & landed like a thunderbolt in the late 19th and early 20th century.

As a young student I remember Foster’s Sainsbury Centre bringing a tear to my eye, I know that sounds slightly corny now but it was just such perfect realisation of a completely modern architectural idea.

Design for Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes by Thomas Croft Architects, photographed by Richard Davies

Since then, buildings don’t often do that, but Toshima Art Museum by Ryue Nishizawa on an island in Japan’s Inland Sea recently did. It’s a domed building, but extremely large. It’s about the size of four tennis courts inside, but quite low, and doesn’t have any windows. It has holes in the roof, so it’s open to the air. Nishizawa worked with the sculptor Rei Naito who created little spurts of water which come up through tiny holes in the floor, and which then trickle around and, because the floor isn’t quite flat, disappear down other holes in a very randomised way like scurrying insects or drops of mercury. A magic confection.

ME: What is the best conversation you’ve had with an architect and who was that architect in question?

The interior of the reimagined 1790’s house by Robert Adam, photographed by Richard Waite

TC: I have had great conversations with John Pawson because he would say things that you didn’t expect, though I have to say it usually involved John talking and everybody else just listening! I remember him once saying: “it’s not about the walls; it’s about the space that the walls enclose.” Having gone through seven years of architecture school that was a new one to me. So often conventional architectural practice is just about form making and imagery.

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ME: I’m a huge admirer of architecture and deeply fascinated by spaces and the emotions they evoke. Beyond the lines, the structure, and the aesthetic — which are, of course, subjective — I’m curious about the emotional attributes of spaces. How much does the emotional impact of a space influence your work?

The reimagined 1790s house as a negotiation between its classic features and modern design, photographed by Richard Waite

TC: Working on homes is always a deeply personal experience for people. The idea of designing something that makes somebody feel at home is quite tricky and it’s often about trying to have a deep and emotional reading of the client. Homes are an expression of how people are, and some people don’t know who they are and so sometimes it’s our job to try to find out.

Alternatively, some people already know exactly who they are; we worked with Sir Paul McCartney on his home in the Sussex countryside and the most fruitful collaborations are often with clients like him who’ve given a lot of thought to the kind of a world they want to live in, but just need assistance in order to help achieve it.

Plans for a reimagined 1790’s house by Robert Adam, London

ME: Talk to me about layering your work with that of an interior designer.

TC: For homes we’re happy leaving the furnishing to a great interior designer or to the clients themselves. Unusually for architects we like the resulting layering and think it’s all part of the project’s story. We’re very Catholic and enjoy working with designers as diverse as Francis Sultana, Philip Hooper at Colefax and Fowler, Suzy Hoodless, Sarah Delaney, Olivia Outred, etc. More minimalist architects, for obvious reasons, need to have total aesthetic control but that’s just not what we do. In any case, when you’re working with an old building, what you’re doing is a simply adding another layer, so you might as well just accept that and make the best of it.

ME: In your own words, how would you describe your particular style and use of texture?

Notting Hill Villa exterior: ‘you can either express the modernism in opposition to the older building or it all becomes modern’ – Thomas Croft (photograph by Richard Davies)

TC: Our starting point is that we’re modern architects. Working in a historic environment, you can either express the modernism in opposition to the older building or it all becomes modern. We can hold both modern and historic ideas at once, and projects are usually the most successful when there’s a tension between them.

Personally, I like living in a modern space. In London we have a 1970’s house that we bought because the planners and locals would be pretty disinterested in what we did to it; it’s great having that freedom in Notting Hill which is otherwise so heavily constrained.

Notting Hill Villa interior: ‘we can hold both modern and historic ideas at once, and projects are usually the most successful when there’s a tension between them’ – Thomas Croft (photograph by Richard Davies)

ME: What is your dream project?

TC: We’re doing a dream project now I guess – it’s a very elaborate modernist folly in a huge landscape garden in Kent that coincidentally used to belong to my great grandparents. It doesn’t really have any brief at all, which is so different from our regular jobs with their very specific and complex programmatic requirements.

Read more: Coralie de Fontenay on women luxury entrepreneurs

ME: We’re sitting in Per’s (Skarstedt) gallery. It’s a beautiful space with really incredible volumes that you’ve managed to create, allowing light to come through in a basement  which doesn’t even look like a basement! It’s sublime! I hear it was George Condo who introduced you to Per?

Transparent Tower Folly in Kent, designed by Thomas Croft Architects

TC: It was a sort of triangulated introduction between George (encouraged by our mutual friend Peter Fleissig), the gallerist Simon Lee for whom we’d done work and who represented George in London at the time, and space agent David Rosen of Pilcher London who specialises in finding galleries their London spaces. So, we certainly had a lot of people rooting for us and Per’s been a great client.

ME: One regret in your personal art collection?

TC: I’ve always thought Richard Hamilton is a great artist and when I was working for Tim Taylor he offered me a Five Tyres Remoulded as a barter in lieu of some fees. However, it’s not a very expensive edition so perhaps I should just buy one now and move on…

A portrait of Thomas Croft outside the Skarstedt Gallery London, by Maryam Eisler

ME: Anyone else on your personal art shopping list?

TC: When people ask that I usually say that I’m just trying to buy back pieces that were sold off by my family in previous decades! In our country home in Whitstable we’ve still got a lot of 18th and 19^th centuries family pictures but many of the best ones got deaccessioned in the 1900’s sadly. Three family portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds were sold off at that time, however I know the current whereabouts of two of them and I’m in touch with their owners. In principle it would be great to have them all back – though of course the only problem in buying back family portraits is that one can never sell them again because it’s not like regular collecting: instead it’s about getting the family all back together again!

thomascroft.com