by Lidewij Edelkoort.

When is a hotel more than a place to sleep?

When does it become an iconic expression of a destination; interpreted through trend-defying tropical design fantasy, celebrating cultural exchange and conservation aspirations while evolving over a 15-year period to become the protagonist of an entire micro-economy – circular in all aspects – built upon equal parts craft and education?

This dream project is UXUA Casa Hotel & Spa by Dutch designer Wilbert Das, a former creative director and design director for the fashion label Diesel who changed his life by moving to Brazil. 

Named after the indigenous Pataxó word for wonderful, UXUA is located in the heart of the colonial fishing village of Trancoso, Bahia, and has captured the imagination of design-savvy fans worldwide and an international, fiercely loyal clientele who’ve collectively selected the resort as the best in the world (Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2021).

“One sheds one’s sense of self as if taking off a winter coat, becoming one with people – all people,” says the book’s author, Lidewij Edelkoort.

“The property looks unpretentious but is incredibly well conceived, each detail taken care of, each aspect crafted by hand, each piece of furniture recycled or designed; a rare mix of hand and head resulting in an organic modernist style with a Brazilian make-do aesthetic.

The historical architecture has proportions that embrace the body and soul while the colourful painted details add to a heightened sense of abstraction that somehow overwhelms all notions of rational thinking. This must be what the scriptures call paradise.”

Produced locally under the direction of Lili Tedde, beautifully designed by Mariola López Mariño, and printed using the highest quality techniques and materials, ‘UXUA UTOPIA: A Very Gifted Guest House’ is a visually-stunning collector’s object that reinvents the coffee-table book format by combining the lifestyle elements of design, art, food, craft and travel to explore UXUA’s achievements in establishing humanitarian values for a new world; a very local project that strives to create social impact.

Indeed, this is more than a book: part trend book, part style bible, part life philosophy manual, ‘UXUA UTOPIA’ is a unique design tool for aesthetic activism that revives hope, happiness and the conscience.