Meditative escapes

The Newt in Somerset Somerset, UK

Agape Destinations

“The re-invention of the designs pulls together the

past and the present, making it look as if the pieces

have always been in the rooms”.

Karen Roos

EN

Set in the idyllic Somerset countryside amidst farmland,

woodland, orchards and acres of gardens, The Newt is

a working estate with a focus on local heritage, sustainable

agriculture and artisan production that also encompasses a

luxury hotel and spa. “The Newt celebrates that typical rural

English way of life that manages to blend past and future,”

says designer Karen Roos, the creator and former head of

Elle Decoration South Africa owner of the Babylonstoren

estate in the Cape Winelands, who chose to reinterpret the

Georgian manor house within which the hotel is located.

“Working with the buildings’ existing architecture to highlight

their unique features, individual personalities and previous

lives”.

Predictably, the hotel is teeming with character. In the

bedrooms, there are elegantly carved wooden four-poster

beds. The ground floor bar and restaurant are ornamented

with intricately molded ceilings. In the spa, Roos and her

team have incorporated the original sandy-colored stone

walls. And finally, in the top floor bedrooms, they have left

the exposed wooden ceiling beams in situ, giving the space

a feeling of bygone charm.

The Agape products, as was the case more than a

decade ago within Babylonstoren, are deeply consistent

with the historical context that animates the project. “In

most cases, it is when the re-invention of the designs pulls

together the past and the present, making it look as if the

pieces have always been in the rooms”, she explains of the

decision. “Mostly these are the pieces by Patricia Urquiola,

who seems to be able to capture this fusion in her designs,

such as the Vieques bathtubs in our Farmyard rooms”.

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Vieques bathtub

Vasca Vieques

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