LLOVE is not just an exhibition which you can visit, but you can actually book an overnight stay. LLOVE offers the unique experience of spending a night in an artistic space which has been created specifically for this event by designers and architects. LLOVE’s main characteristic is that guests can spend their time at LLOVE according to their mood of the moment; a unique type of hotel in Japan, with a limited amount of service. A café is included and all ingredients of the served food are from Nara. Nara, a region famous for its traditional Japanese culture, celebrates its 1300th anniversary as Japan’s first full-fledged capital, Nara Heijokyo.

The LLOVE concept was created by Suzanne Oxenaar, Artistic Director of the LLOYD HOTEL & Cultural Embassy in Amsterdam. Over 50 designers have contributed to the Lloyd Hotel. Coinciding with DESIGNTIDE TOKYO, LLOVE will present Dutch design in a new way. What’s more, the access from the main venue of DESIGNTIDE is perfect, LLOVE is sure to become a meeting space for international designers.

Located at Daikanyama i Studio in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, LLOVE will be on display through November 23, 2010.
Architect Director: Jo Nagasaka
Organizers: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands!  Nara Prefecture
Supervison: Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy
Executive Committee: Naoko Aono, Florianne Eshuis, Nobuyuki Fukui, Renate Schepen, Yoko Shimada
Hotel & Café Operation: Transit General Office
Graphic Design: Thonik
Photos: Takumi Ota

And another great thing about Llove: IT’S FREE.

There are hotels built in the shape of dogs, others under water or in trees. Indeed, if you want something more "special", there are some where you will be watched all the time: that if you choose to stay at a prison-hotel.

But still, for the ordinary eccentrics, here are some suggestions:

1. Parchi del Garda Hotel is a four star hotel open to the public this year, in Lazise, 20 minutes away from Lake Garda. Here you are being given a 4D experience, complete with animatronic figures and scenographies most worthy of hi-tech soundstages, where (even without special glasses) you wake thrown in a fantastic adventure.

To get to the ‘Avventura Safari’ room, you won’t take the elevator like you are accustomed: you will go through a breach in the wall to a corridor where the wild nature rules undisturbed and as you advance, just like and explorer through the shrubs and tropical plants, you reach the door, which is nothing but a natural park entrance: once you pass the threshold you will see the savanna, sinking into a spectacular crimson sunsets.

2. Casa del Ghirosveglio, for those interested in rural tourism, in Italy, Liguria, the Baiardo city in the province of Imperia, is an ancient XIX century castle than was transformed in the House of Sleeping Beauty. "Casa del Ghirosveglio" with the Alps on one side and the sea on the other side, is a enchanted house where the children can play as they please, and the grownups can act like kids as well.

The rooms are "themed", inspired by the famous fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Dwarf Cinnabar, Alice in Wonderland. A room costs 45 euro / person / night.

3. Etruscan Chocohotel in Perugia first hotel in the world dedicated entirely to the "food of the gods", but where you can eat as much chocolate as you can, non-stop, the whole stay, but to avoid indigestion, you can take some "supplies" with you on departure (for free).

Starting in October, here there is a special offer: Choco Sweet Suite, priced at 259 euros / night: accommodation includes breakfast (Swedish buffet) with croissants, biscuits, cakes and chocolate fondue at discretion, chocolate in the room and in the bathroom all cosmetic products are chocolate-based.

And there’s also the "Sweet Choco SuiteLuxury" (449 euros / night), where the quantities of chocolate take unimaginable proportions. And, if your body can handle, for 23 euros/person, you can have the Chocomenu at dinner, meaning five dishes, all based on cocoa, from appetizer to dessert.

4. Franklin Hotel in Rome is completely dedicated to the music lovers. All they have to when they book the room is to select their favorite music from the cd library, and they will hear it as soon as they set foot in the room. The music, is obviously chosen on specific genres: pop, rock, blues, jazz and soul. Here visitors can enjoy all facilities, including wireless internet, sound system from the Bang & Olufsen "luxury" category and LCD TV.

5. Alexander Museum Palace Hotel in Pesaro is for the amateurs of contemporary art. The owner of this hotel/museum in a count – Alessandro Ferruccio Marcucci Pinoli di Valfesina himself an eccentric character, writer, painter, poet and sculptor – every detail bears the signature of a famous contemporary artist.

The hotel has 63 rooms decorated by 75 artists, and the Count makes great effort to make his guests take part at the ‘artistic fact’. Meaning, the tourists can enjoy a real therapy: they can take part at debates, conferences, auctions and exchanges of art objects, but also watercolor classes, portraits, ceramic and metal processing. They can even exploit their own creative talent and are able to pay (partially) their stay with their own works of art.

6. Food Hotel in Neuwied, a town 45 km south of Koln reminds us of a… supermarket, starting at the establishment’s logo, a barcode. From Ferrero Rocher to  Coca-Cola, from Dr.Oekter to Messmer, ten other corporations have ‘adopted’ and personalized a room in this bizarre hotel dedicated to consumerism.

Even the restaurant room (150 sq.m.) looks just like a department of fruits and vegetables along with the adjacent bakery area, where they make fresh bread; and the sauna, predictably, is located in a cold room.

7. Lindner Park-Hotel Hagenbeck in Hamburg has ‘a travel around the world’ theme, so the spaces have been decorated in a exotic-colonial style ment to evoke distant worlds. The 158 rooms are dedicated to the flora and fauna in Africa, Asia and Arctic. 

8. Library Hotel in New York offers its clients the feeling that they have checked into a library. And not just any library , considering that the it contains over 6,000 volumes of the most disparate literary genres, located on ten floors.

9. Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool is dedicated to The Beatles. The Paul McCartney apartment is completely decorated with images and newspaper articles dedicated to the artist, while ‘John Lennon’ has a Baby Grand Piano apparently associated to the piano used in the famous video ‘Imagine’.

10. Pantone Hotel in Brussels is entirely dedicated to the famous color palette used throughout the world. Here the rooms are also a variety of works of art, enriched by the Belgian artist’s photographic installations Victor Levy, each in a different color.

But the deepest and largest well, and in very good shape is Chand Baori, built in the IX century in Abhaneri, Rajasthan, mirroring the Harshat Mata Temple. The well has 3500 steps, 13 stories and a depth of 30m.

In 20.000sqm you’ll find the V8 Hotel, shops, an exclusive theme restaurant and an event hall. If you are interested, the hotel also hosts various events: birthdays, weddings (after a long talk with your wife), anniversaries and other similar.

If you decide to go there you should know that prices start from 120E/night for a single room and can get up to 380E/night for a suite.

But, there’s a big chance you’ll want to stay in a theme room (160E/night):

• Autokino
• V8 Camp
• Racing
• Werkstatt
• Carwash
• Vision
• Tuning
• Nostalgie
• Tankstelle
• Motocycle

First he was carrying stones in his pockets, later he used a basket and finally a wheelbarrow. He used lime, mortar and cement to bound the stones together.

After finishing his Ideal Palace, Cheval spent another 8 years to build a mausoleum for him in the cemetery of Hauterives, the same town where the palace is built.

The palace is considered the only example of naive architecture.

If you ever want to visit Le Palais Ideal, is located in Hauterives, near Lyon, in France.

You can sit either outside, surrounded by flowers and specific pavement, or inside, where you can choose the old part which is designed as an Czech Inn or the new part that looks like a modern Bavarian beer house.

The most popular food are the roasted pork knuckles with its delicious crackling like in Bavaria, or the Polish-style duck or trout. You can also choose to eat a soup served in enamelled pots or if you get lucky you might get a temporary seasonal dish, broth to you by charming waitresses, that will happily answer all your questions.