Natures riches

THE NEW SIX SENSES CON DAO RESORT BLEND SPECTACULAR ISLAND SCENERY WITH LUXURY

eda Amalou, designer of the Six Senses Con Dao hotel and partner at French design firm AW2, doesnt want his latest i Vietnam to stand out. Rather, his goal when designing the 50 villa resort was to make it disappear into its natural surroundings.

Famous for its prison built during " the French colonial rule, Con Dao is an archipelago of 16 islands located 230km south of Ho Chi Minh City, an hours flight away. More than 80% of the islands are protected national parks, making the Six Senses resort "quite unique, quite special," said Amalou.

"You have to respect such a place," he said of the islands mountains, mangroves, beaches, coral reefs, forests and river. "We had to blend in to the landscape and become one with it; we had to disappear." Ц The firms previous experience in de -| signing the all villa resort of Nam Hai on Vietnams Hoi An beach established its reputation for luxury resorts in the Vietnamese market. Rather than concentrate on design specifics, the Six Senses brief reflected the operators commitment to give guests a unique experience when visiting the resort.

The Italian Job

JACOB SARDINI OPENS FIRST MIDDLE EAST RETAIL SHOWROOM AND DESIGN STUDIO

UAE: Jacob Sardini, an Italian firm with a range of contemporary furniture, fittings, lights and bathroom supplies, has opened an office in Dubai.

It plans to expand to other countries and is currently in negotiations with India, Pakistan, Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

"The Jacob Sardini store is an interior design studio with a retail element and is the first of its kind in the Middle East. We oversee almost everything - floors, furniture, and lighting," said Tomas Hoog, business development manager.

He said the new store wants to provide a flexible design service for customers in the region as it felt there was a need for it.

Construction loans

As it is known, credit is a kind of movement of money capital which is provided as a loan. In other words, it is the lending of cash or goods with an interest to be paid. Nowadays crediting is very popular and a huge number of banks are involved in it. Both special organizations as well as any legal entity can be a creditor. The most common creditors are banks.

Requirements to receive a construction loan

Let us consider cases of construction loans for private dwellings. In spite of the fact that there are countless banks, there are some common conditions that apply to all of them. So, to receive a construction loan from a bank, you should be familiar with these conditions:

First of all, you will need to make an initial payment, which is usually around 10 percent. Secondly, the annual percentage rate will be from about 13 percent in US dollars, and from 19.4 percent in national currency.

Reading Space: Words and Thoughts on Design

A series of sketches by John Hejduk from 1962 - enigmatic diagrams of a mysterious wall - prompt K. Michael Hays to state in his latest book that the images "resemble nothing so much as Lacans diagram of the gaze, of vision turned back on itself." Indeed, they might lead us to think the architect had the analysts psycho - visual schemata in mind when he made them.

But, no: Lacans figure didnt debut in print until 1973. But you wouldnt know that from reading Architectures Desire, an edifying if irreverent history of architecture in the age of theory - one thats more concerned with applying theory to history than in searching for theory in history.

Hays returns us to a time - the 1960s and 70s - when discourse turned in on itself, looking to reevaluate its ontological foundations and its eschatological trajectory. It hoped to use architecture as a medium for philosophical thought. Conscripted into Hayss late avant - garde are Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman, Hejduk, Bernard Tschumi, and, in a brief coda, Rem Koolhaas, who rushes in to crowd out his colleagues introspections and declare the return of the Real.