WHERE IS THE COOL – N°8

Finding, sculpting and protecting your own eden seems like a last option for aesthetes in a world that seems to always give in to the whims of a population that doesn’t seek its good but only their own satisfaction. Some people have therefore embarked on more or less vast enterprises.

Sergio Casoli’s one is 9,49km2, the island of Filicudi, the former famous Italian gallery owner purchased the Grand Hotel La Sirena in order to protect the spirit of the coolest one-star hotel in the world. Foster Huntington left his job as a designer in New York a few years ago to build and live in a tree-house in Washington State and also Mikkel Kristensen, who recently opened the Marqi, an 80’s paradisiac mansion near the Sintra Valley which he renovated with his own vision.

When I’m asked if a place is cool or why I think this one isn’t, my answer is that most of the time: a “cool place” correspond to the vision of their owners and are not there with the goal of pleasing everybody. This is what differentiates a cool place from (just) a beautiful one. These places impose themselves on you with their own rules, sincerity and sometimes defaults whose charm emanates, it’s up to you to adapt to enjoy it, or not.

This issue touches on the subject several times in the middle of a whole bunch of articles that have nothing to do with it, don’t worry, the magazine is still as spontaneous and messy as ever.