Art Hotels

where the water is

The Grand Canal runs directly under the windows. The hotel occupies Palazzo Papadopoli, a sixteenth-century palace whose main front opens onto the canal through a water gate at the level of the tide. Behind the building lie two walled gardens, rare in this part of the city, and a smaller canal passes along one flank.

where it comes from

The canal is a tidal channel of the Venetian lagoon rather than a river, so its water is brackish and comes and goes with the Adriatic. It rises and falls twice daily and higher in autumn. Drinking water reaches the island by pipeline from the mainland, as it has since the aqueduct replaced the old wells.

what it is for

Here the water is the road. Boats bring guests to the water gate and deliveries arrive the same way. The gardens are the only ground not shared with the canal, and the piano nobile is raised above the tide line so the principal rooms sit clear of it.

what it changes inside

The ground floor is a threshold rather than a room: stone underfoot, little that cannot be dried, the working spaces lifted above. Salt has shaped the plasterwork and the repairs to it. Arrival happens at the mooring, so the sequence runs from boat to hall.

one thing to settle

Ask in advance how you should arrive, since the water gate and the land door are reached in different ways.

where the water is

The Tyrrhenian Sea lies directly below the house. The hotel stands on the cliff on the Amalfi road, and a lift cut through the rock carries guests down to a seawater pool and a bathing platform set at the foot of the cliff. Terraced gardens and citrus groves step down the slope on either side of the shaft.

where it comes from

The sea below is open Mediterranean water, deep close in because the coast drops steeply. Fresh water on this coast comes from springs in the limestone behind the towns, gathered and piped down to them, and the terraces above the hotel are irrigated from that same mountain supply rather than from the sea.

what it is for

The sea gives the house its lower half. The pool and the platform are the reason for the lift, the terraces are the reason for the paths, and the restaurant sits where the two views meet. Without the shaft the water would be visible but not reachable.

what it changes inside

Everything below the lobby is arranged around a vertical journey, so the plan is thin and long. Steps and landings are stone and drained for salt spray. Shoes come off at the platform and not at the door, and changing rooms are kept at the bottom.

one thing to settle

Ask whether the lift and the lower terrace are in service during the period you plan to stay.

where the water is

The water here is held in courtyards. El Fenn is a riad in the medina, built from several old houses joined together, and its open courts carry a swimming pool and smaller planted basins. Nothing faces outward: the water is enclosed by walls on every side and reached only from within the house.

where it comes from

Marrakech stands on a plain fed from the High Atlas, and the old city was watered for centuries by khettara channels running underground from the foothills. That system has largely given way to the municipal network, which now supplies the medina. Rain here is occasional, so the basins are filled from the mains rather than the sky.

what it is for

The courtyard water cools and quiets the middle of the house. It gives the plan its centre, sets where the trees and the seating go, and makes the roof terrace and the ground floor feel like two different climates.

what it changes inside

Because the water is in the middle, circulation runs around it on tiled walkways, and rooms open onto that ring rather than a corridor. Floors near the courts are hard and cool underfoot. Drying happens on the roof, and the fountains carry into inner rooms.

one thing to settle

Ask which courtyards and roof terraces are open, as the house is made of several linked buildings.

where the water is

Lough Corrib comes right up to the estate. The castle stands on the northern shore with lawns running down to the water and a jetty for the estate boats. The River Cong crosses the grounds and the village beside it, so there is moving water on one side of the house and still water on the other.

where it comes from

Lough Corrib is a large limestone lake that drains west to the sea at Galway. The River Cong is short and strange: it carries the overflow of Lough Mask underground through the limestone and returns it to the surface here before it reaches Corrib. Springs and swallow holes are scattered across the woods and the village.

what it is for

The lake is what the estate is arranged to reach. Boats leave from the jetty, the walks follow the shoreline, and the fishing the place has been known for depends on it. The river turns the weirs in the village and gives the woodland paths their route.

what it changes inside

Ground close to the shore stays wet, so the paths are gravelled and raised and the lawns are drained. Boots and rods are handled at a separate door rather than in the hall. Rooms facing the lake have the deepest window reveals.

one thing to settle

Ask which lake activities are running, since boats and shore walks depend on conditions on the day.

where the water is

The Pacific is below and the fog is on the ridge. The inn stands high on the coastal range at Big Sur with the ocean out of reach beneath it, and its pools sit on a ridge terrace facing that drop. There is no path down: the water at hand is the pool and the cloud.

where it comes from

Sea fog rises against the range for much of the year and wets everything on the ridge without rain falling. Fresh water on this stretch of coast is drawn locally, from springs and wells in the mountain rather than from any distant system, and the redwood canyons behind the ridge hold the runoff that feeds them.

what it is for

The water here works as climate more than as amenity. Fog decides what grows, how far you can see, and how the rooms are glazed. The pools give the only open water here, and the outdoor rooms catch the sun when the ridge clears.

what it changes inside

Damp air is constant, so the buildings are timber, low and set apart, with decks that drain quickly. Paths between rooms are outdoors, which means boots and coats live near the door. Windows are large on the ocean side and small behind, and the wood weathers grey.

one thing to settle

Ask how the ridge weather affects access and which outdoor areas stay open in fog.

where the water is

The hotel falls down the caldera wall in terraces, and the pools fall with it. Small basins are cut into the levels one below another at Oia, with the flooded crater far beneath and the sea beyond the rim. The water you can touch is on the cliff; the water you look at is far below.

where it comes from

Santorini has almost no fresh water of its own. For centuries the houses collected rain from their roofs into cisterns dug beneath them, and that practice shaped the vaulted building here. The island now relies largely on desalination for its supply, so what fills the terraces has been made drinkable before it is used.

what it is for

The pools break the cliff into usable ground. They mark where each terrace stops, hold the shade and the seating, and turn a steep face into a set of rooms. The caldera below is the view the whole plan is turned toward.

what it changes inside

Because the levels are stacked, movement is by steps and everything is carried by hand. Surfaces are plastered and pale so they stay cool, and wet feet dry fast on them. Rooms are cut back into the rock, which keeps them dark while the outside glares.

one thing to settle

Ask which terraces and pools belong to your room, since the levels are reached by steps only.