Georgia’s capital Tbilisi is introduced as one of the best-designed travel options for explorers this year, ranking alongside locations ranging from Marrakech to Tokyo, in an Observer Design piece in The Guardian.

With its “energy and sense of untapped potential”, the bustling city nestled between hills surrounding the Mtkvari River is selected for the shortlist of eight locations across the world with its newly discovered artistic identity of “new Berlin”.

[The city’s] lack of purpose-built cultural spaces has resulted in a certain ingenuity, with art cafes opening in crumbling art nouveau houses, pop-up galleries in Soviet-era factories and nightclubs taking over abandoned spaces” – The Guardian

Generated through the melting pot of art, fashion and clubbing scene – inspired by the German capital but also taking its own shapes – the title introduces Tbilisi’s creative vector in an urban context of impromptu venues and DIY locations hosting artists and their projects.

Locations like Fabrika – a former Soviet sewing factory building repurposed to work as a “hip hostel”, hosting venue for artistic platforms and projects as well as studios – and the Stamba Hotel are named in the travel/design piece along with events like Tbilisi Art Fair as examples of the capital’s newly found attraction.