Why Kaohsiung’s swish new hotel Silks Club will make you feel at home

So, it’s a club then? Good guess, but Silks Club is actually a swish new 147-suite hotel in Taiwan’s second city of Kaohsiung, which was recently named one of Lonely Planet’s top 10 destinations for 2018.

Facing the port and ocean, the property is located in the up-and-coming Qianzhen neighbour­hood, which will no doubt be funky once all the construction is complete. The owners have endeavoured to make the “club” feel more like private apartment living than a hotel, hence there are no signs in the lift, only floor numbers.

That’s … different. So what makes it a hotel? Well, the suites are spacious and beautifully designed in cool, neutral colours. The bathrooms are enormous, with a large free-standing tub over­looking the city (tip: the windows aren’t blacked out, so you may want to close the electric blinds). The smellies are eminently stealable, too.

The Presidential Suite, which takes up the whole top floor, has its own … well, every­thing … and can accommodate functions with 100 people or more. Besides the usual bells and whistles, such as an impressive gym and a stunner of an infinity pool perched above the city, the hotel has excellent dining options and a memorable lobby.

Memorable how? The centrepiece of the space is a 4D kinetic installation made up of moving golden orbs called Dancing Particles. Art+Com, the German design group behind the strangely hypnotic artwork, has designed other kinetic sculptures, for Singapore’s Changi Airport and the BMW Museum, in Munich, Germany.