The accommodation is the talking point when you stay at these marvels of engineering and architecture. Whether it is spearheading a new hospitality concept, coming up with a groundbreaking design or giving back to the community, opening hotels that go beyond the conventional requires genius and courage – the work of true visionaries.
For July’s Free Spirit month, we look to a lodge in Southern Australia that was rebuilt after the bushfires of 2020, crescent-shaped huts in an eco-friendly resort in Bali, a convent-turned-luxury hotel in Nice and more.
When the Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island, Southern Australia, reopened last December, it marks the resilience of the human spirit as well as the rebirth of the island and its wildlife. During the 2020 bushfires that engulfed Australia, half the island was reduced to embers and tens of thousands of animals perished. The lodge was razed. While its founders, James and Hayley Ballie, had sold their portfolio of resorts to a private equity group in 2019, they stayed on as consultants and were involved in the lodge’s reconstruction. The remake is a carbon copy of the original by architect Max Pritchard, remaining a poster child for sustainable luxury resorts in the Antipodes. It commands unobstructed views of Antarctica across the Southern Ocean, while taking nothing – as eco warriors had originally feared – from the wild southwestern coast, not even its raw beauty.
In addition to running a successful jewellery business in Bali, John and Cindy Hardy established the sustainability-focused Green School and eco-friendly resort Bambu Indah. The latter was recently revamped. A product of two creatives, the resort’s design is refreshing. Antique Javanese houses are restored with bamboo and buildings are erected on stilts to allow removal with little impact on the earth. Accommodation options on the 3ha property are architectural marvels. Moon House, a crescent of bamboo and copper that looks like a giant seed pod, is our favourite.
Situated in Nice’s old town, 400-year-old convent-turned luxury hotel L’Hôtel du Couvent is a 10-year passion project by renowned hotelier Valéry Grégo. Grégo has invested 100 million euros (S$135 million) into the project. Inspired by the communal way of life of convents – L’Hôtel du Couvent has 88 rooms and subterranean Roman baths – he introduced restaurants, an archival centre for L’École de Nice, a neighbourhood art movement, a bakery, an apothecary, a vegetable and fruit garden, and more into the space. The interiors are “neo-monastic” in style – spartan at first glance, but rich in quality and details upon observation.
Buildings located at One Za’abeel, Dubai’s most prestigious address, are likely to be exceptionally designed. To ensure that One&Only One Za’abeel gains icon status, Japanese architects Nikken Sekkei connect two asymmetrical towers with the world’s longest cantilever, 100m from the ground, that also houses Dubai’s longest infinity pool at 120m. To complement the simple yet jaw-dropping structure, interior designer Jean Michele Gathy, who is responsible for the One & Only resorts in Maldives and Montenegro, and Aman New York, gave a sleek and uncluttered elegance to the rooms, some of which face Burj Khalifa.
Sonu and Eva Malmström Shivdasani, the hoteliers who invented one of the most copied hospitality concepts, “No shoes, no news”, have outdone themselves in the Maldives again. Soneva Secret has taken 30 years to materialise and like all of Shivdasani’s other resorts, it is in equal parts, luxury, heart and social consciousness. At Soneva Secret, the sustainability checklist is ticked off and seclusion guaranteed. The location is so unspoilt that sightings of the marine big five are frequent. The jewel in the crown, the Castaway cabin, can float into the middle of the sea, completely unmoored, and be towed to different sites. Guests can wake up in a different location every day. How’s that for a peerless travel experience?
Editor-At-Large
Mavis Teo is an editor-at-large at Prestige Singapore where she focuses on travel, arts and culture, and personality profiles. A regular contributor to South China Morning Post, DestinAsian, The Straits ..Read More
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