According to the designer based in New York, Andrew Kotchen, director of the design and architecture firm Workshop / APD, luxury has more to do with experience than with aesthetics. The firm of Kotchen has designed everything from lofts and townhouses to buildings and restaurants in the city of London, Bahamas, Miami, Nantucket, Aspen and New York City.
“It’s about comfort,” he said in a recent interview with Mansion Global. “A beautiful hotel, for example, is not a luxury and it’s not relaxing, it’s not just about rich materials, the world we live in thinks that the more money is thrown, the more elegant materials, the more luxurious it is. . ”
He continued: “Certainly there are basic conditions of quality and craftsmanship, but in reality it is an experience, that is what it means to me, it is not a place, a thing or a product”.
The focus on experiences explains why luxury condominium providers are investing money in “wellness” services. Consider the 1030 Kings of the Angels condo, which has an outdoor yoga terrace, and Arbor18 in Brooklyn, which is not only with a Zen garden but also an infrared sauna with built-in chromotherapy.
It also explains why luxury buyers are reducing their size, prioritizing quality over space. But the evolution of luxury real estate is part of a larger shift in the luxury industry in general: the rich increasingly spend more money discreetly and on-the-spot experiences of items that have status once and for all.
Whole industries are adjusted to fit services to meet the needs of consumers in the brand experience. Well-being is increasingly a modern embodiment of luxury and, to a large extent, a wide variety of spas and studios that offer such as cryopaths, week-long withdrawals and IV drips provide those experiences.
