The Coqoon Treetop Spa Provides Mid-Air Pampering At The Indigo Pearl, Phuket.

Award-winning 5-star Phuket resort Indigo Pearl has just opened a cutting-edge designer spa, most unique for its suspended treetop room providing mid-air pampering.



Modeled on the boyhood vision of internationally renowned designer, Bill Bensley, who is responsible for the entire resort’s raw-industrial meets sensual-chic styling, Coqoon Spa takes guests on a ‘journey of discovery and healing’.






It is set amongst lush tropical rainforest as the resort’s very own ‘Garden of Eden’ and uses a banyan tree as the hanger for its signature treatment room.




Coqoon Spa features six deluxe treatment rooms as well as an exclusive ‘Coqoon Suite’ complete with private pool, rain shower, steam room, sauna and Vichy shower available for private hire for up to 3-days. It comes complete with a spa butler for ease and convenience of multiple treatments throughout guests’ stay.





The ‘pièce de résistance and must-try for all spa enthusiasts is ‘The Nest’ – a luxurious spa suite suspended midair and accessed by a flying bridge, allowing guests to get up close and personal with nature.





Coqoon Spa is adorned throughout in silvery-blue palms and hues of plumbago. It takes the typical ‘zen’ approach to spas and gives it a lively / unusual twist with industrial touches and a fresh colour scheme. Its treatments menu is steeped in Thai tradition whilst embracing holistic ideals in the pursuit of better health and wellness.



On offer is a range of aromatic body treatments, scrubs and wraps, Anne Semonin facial treatments, hand and foot care, and beauty treatments. Rare plant essences, Andaman elixirs and Thai herbal spices excite the senses and rejuvenate the mind, body and spirit, administered by highly qualified therapists ensuring guest comfort and privacy at all times.



This wellness journey extends to the privacy of guests’ own accommodations with custom-designed ‘D-Buk’ spa suites, where individual experiences can be tailored to suit special requests and needs – with spa executives designing an individual treatment programme which is both enjoyable while also meeting specific goals and objectives. These can incorporate diet, exercise, activity, rest and relaxation with spa treatments to ultimately rejuvenate mind, body and spirit.


In celebration of the Coqoon Spa opening, Indigo Pearl is offering the “Coqoon Revival” package, a delicately designed package to revitalize and nourish body and soul available at THB 22,500 net from now until 15 April 2011.



The acclaimed 5-star Indigo Pearl is a fusion of modern architecture and Thai tin-mining heritage next to Nai Yang Beach, just 10 minutes from Phuket International Airport. The resort has been hailed as a design masterpiece by global media publications and boasts easy access with direct flights to Phuket from almost everywhere in Asia.


Indigo Pearl Coqoon Spa

+66 (0) 76 327 006

Crazy Astroturf Covered Concrete House In Austria

With a design seemingly inspired by MC Escher's drawing above, this cubistic freestanding home in Frohnleiten, Austria is literally covered in Astroturf.






With concrete staircases that seemingly go nowhere, but actually serve as supports, the home is embellished with right angles and large framed windows.






Utilizing unusual elements indoors as well, the home uses a window frame as a staircase banister or railing.



From certain angles, the home is barely distnguishable from its lush surroundings:


more images:






The contrast to its neighbor, a traditional Austrian looking home:

Architects: Weichlbauer Ortis
All photos © Peter Eder
Thanks to Stylepark for bringing this to my attention

The New Batumi Aquarium From Henning Larsen Is Inspired By Beach Pebbles.

Henning Larsen Architects has won first prize for its significant design concept for a new aquarium in the Georgian seaport of Batumi. The invited competition took place in spring 2010 with the German architecture company Drei Architekten and the two American companies PJA Architects and Pryor & Morrow Architects among the participants.



The 2,000 m2 aquarium will replace the previous aquarium of the port and will be situated on the beach side of Rustaveli Str. adjacent to Batumi 6 May Park featuring a Dolphinarium and Zoo.



Inspired by the characteristic pebbles of the Batumi beach (above), continually shaped by the wash of the waves through millennia, the building (below) stands out as an iconic rock formation visible from both land and sea.



The formation constitutes four self-supporting exhibition areas where each of the four stones represents a unique marine biotype – the Aegean Sea & the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Black Sea & the Red Sea and finally the more interactive exhibition space for teaching and “edutainment”.







The four dispersed aquarium exhibitions are connected by a central, multipurpose space including café, auditorium and retail functions with views of the black sea and Batumi beach as scenic backdrop. Visitors gather in the central space to convene, play, eat, shop and relax before continuing their adventures through the exhibitions.



Batumi Aquarium will become a modern, cultural aquarium offering visitors an educational, entertaining and visually stimulating journey through the different seas.



The central, multipurpose space in connection with the aquarium features a café and retail functions and its flexible layout makes it well-suited for presentations and workshops.

“It has been important for us to create a design that relates explicitly to local characteristics of Batumi while at the same time reaching out to the world”, says Anders Park, who is project manager for a number of Henning Larsen Architects’ projects in Georgia. “The aquarium interacts with its surroundings and becomes a manifestation of nature itself”.

Unfolding around the aquarium, a landscape of different sea archipelagos provides attractive opportunities for innovative outdoor research and learning, public space and meeting places along the beach.




The building's significant expression inspired by nature will not only make Batumi Aquarium a spectacular new landmark in Georgia but also a state-of-the-art contribution to exploring life underneath the sea surface.

Please click on the cross sections and plans below to enlarge (note: you will be taken away from the blog):








Project facts
Location: Batumi in the Republic of Georgia
Client: Association A.T.U.
Gross floor area: 2,000 m2
Year of design: 2010 - 2010
Type of assignment: First prize in invited competition
Project team: Louis Becker (design director, partner) Anders Park (project manager), Viggo Haremst (design responsible), Michael Sørensen and Jaewoo Chun.

press release and images courtesy of Henning Larsen Architects

The City of Batumi

Batumi is the capital of the south-western province Adjara in Georgia. The city has approx. 120,000 citizens and is situated by the Black Sea, approx. 20 km from the border of Turkey. Batumi is a very active tourist city and commercial port. Unlike other cities in Georgia, the houses of Batumi are richly coloured and the city bears the mark of being a sailor city with a number of restaurants and cafés. Batumi also has wonderful beaches and many small hotels.