Famous French architect Jean Nouvel continues to argue against generalist architecture. Nouvel has presented in October 2009 one of his latest works, the Pavilion B at Genoa’s Salone Nautico. With an impressive lesson on aesthetics, Nouvel, who holds the Pritzker Prize 2008, has accounted for the basics of his accomplishment: he aimed to insert the edifice within the urban and social backdrop of the city of Genoa.

To be sure, from the vantage point of the water, the edifice is in harmony with the sea and the boats that are moored. A comparable thought can be felt by contemplating other of Nouvel’s works like the Muse Quai Branly in Paris, the Akbar Tower in Barcelona and the development of Colle Val d’Elsa in Tuscany. Nouvel declares himself resistant to the “carbon copy cities” in an interview by Renata Fontanelli published in La Repubblica, Italy, on October 12th 2009, and of which are some scraps roughly translated from Italian:

“Lately one cannot tell the difference from the cities of San Paolo in Brazil from Dubai or Shanghai from Milan as designers seem not to take into consideration the uniqueness of each urban agglomeration . Architects do not appear to look at the light, the wind, the water, the history and the culture that make every city, be it small or large, unique. [...] Today,” says Nouvel, “modern architecture lies in the relation with its context.”

This vision is in conformity with the contemporary traveler’s increasing attention to boutique hotels. To be sure, in the past 20 years the market of boutique hotels has experienced an extraordinary development and this is conceivably due to the fact that people are looking to a greater extent for a hotel that may provide them with a touch of the city’s essence, rather than picking a “carbon copy hotel”, a “big box” the likes of which you could find in any other city.

Just like a “boutique” in French is a small upscale shop as opposed to a big department store, in the same way a boutique hotel is different from a bigger Hotel Chain, which is generally standardized in features and looks. Boutique hotels are more expected to deliver the zest of the location where it is set and it is by and large a one-of-a-kind experience.

In a world that is becoming increasingly standardized, where commodities, stores, restaurants, indeed society in general is developing into a homogenized entity, boutique hotels are a beacon for diversity and originality.

David Maranzana has founded Epoque Hotels and Avantgarde Hotels, a collection of boutique hotels in the major destinations worldwide.