Discover the place

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At Melides, Christian Louboutin had a tower built that’s almost useless. And maybe that is the ultimate luxury: creating a place with no bedroom, no kitchen, no office, no PowerPoint justification. Just architecture for reading, drinking, meditating, watching the sun fall, then ending the night shouting beneath an oculus. The tower is called La Folie. It was conceived by architect Tarek Shamma and completed in 2021. By day it’s a concrete cylinder pierced with geometric openings, inspired by Rajasthan’s stepwells and Jaipur’s Jantar Mantar. Architecture of heat, shadow, light, ritual. By night, naturally, everything gets murkier. Colored LEDs turn the interior into a mini psychedelic temple. A place where you officially “have a drink,” but where you quickly suspect you’ll end up grasping the meaning of life between two crossing staircases. Honestly, you want to be there. But the twist is this Folie exists in a Melides that’s changing fast. Around it, old local haunts vanish, resorts press in, and nature increasingly becomes a backdrop reserved for those who can pay for it. So yes, La Folie is sublime. Yes, it makes you want to disappear for three days under the pines with a linen shirt and one bad romantic decision. But it also tells another story: when a place is “for nothing,” it can still show who still has access to the dream. Quick facts: Work: La Folie Place: Melides, Portugal Architect: Tarek Shamma Patron: Christian Louboutin Year: 2021 See it via the link in bio. Credits: Archives La Folie / Christian Louboutin / D.R. / Clément Vayssieres Edited