Meditative escapes
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The Newt in Somerset Somerset, UK
EN Set in the idyllic Somerset countryside amidst farmland,
woodland, orchards and acres of gardens, The Newt is
a working estate with a focus on local heritage, sustainable
agriculture and artisan production that also encompasses a
luxury hotel and spa. “The Newt celebrates that typical rural
English way of life that manages to blend past and future,”
says designer Karen Roos, the creator and former head of
Elle Decoration South Africa owner of the Babylonstoren
estate in the Cape Winelands, who chose to reinterpret the
Georgian manor house within which the hotel is located.
“Working with the buildings’ existing architecture to highlight
their unique features, individual personalities and previous
lives”.
Predictably, the hotel is teeming with character. In the
bedrooms, there are elegantly carved wooden four-poster
beds. The ground floor bar and restaurant are ornamented
with intricately molded ceilings. In the spa, Roos and her
team have incorporated the original sandy-colored stone
walls. And finally, in the top floor bedrooms, they have left
the exposed wooden ceiling beams in situ, giving the space
a feeling of bygone charm.
The Agape products, as was the case more than a
decade ago within Babylonstoren, are deeply consistent
with the historical context that animates the project. “In
most cases, it is when the re-invention of the designs pulls
together the past and the present, making it look as if the
pieces have always been in the rooms”, she explains of the
decision. “Mostly these are the pieces by Patricia Urquiola,
who seems to be able to capture this fusion in her designs,
such as the Vieques bathtubs in our Farmyard rooms”.
Vieques bathtub
Vasca Vieques
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Agape Destinations
“The re-invention of the designs pulls together the
past and the present, making it look as if the pieces
have always been in the rooms”. Karen Roos
