Neri & Hu Design and Research Office

Y+ YOGA CENTER, SHANGHAI

Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

This expanded, 12,000-square-foot wellness center's serene rooms for yoga, massage, meditating, and lounging elicit a collective "om." "In a city where many are struggling to maintain basic human values, we created a refuge for self-reflection and a community for meeting people," says founding partner Lyndon Neri. Two yoga rooms feature walls and ceilings painted with a random pattern of apple-green leaves, linear fluorescents, and flooring of ebonized South African walnut. The same wood floor reappears in the third yoga room as an elevated semicircle, enclosed by a curtain of ropes dyed various shades of green to "represent abstracted trees," notes cofounding partner Rossana Hu. Between the yoga and circulation rooms, nooks for cooling down, reading, or socializing are marked by walls of emulsion-painted zebrano. How Zen is that?

AC Martin

project Guerlain Spa, New York.

standout A rich materials palette of Calacatta marble, glass mosaic tiles, custom crystal pendant fixtures, and white oak complements the aura of sovereign privacy at this 14,000-square-foot spa inside the Waldorf-Astoria.

HBA/Hirsch Bedner Associates

project Espa at the Europe Hotel & Resort, Killarney, Ireland.

standout Sparkling mirror-and-glass chandeliers are suspended over the pool, while a centuries-old Irish pattern is rendered in thin bronze sheets for the lobby's pendant fixtures.

Zeff Design

project Sense, New York.

standout Cove lighting in darkly paneled treatment rooms and shimmering platinum mosaic tile on the barrel-vaulted stairwell lend neo–art deco drama to this bi-level spa inside the Carlyle hotel.