Sunday, January 22, 2006

Datai Hotel, Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia, By Kerry Hill Architects

"All too often, investors disregard the opportunity to marry luxury tourism to ecological sensitivity,opting instead for easier, more cost-effective or more sensational developments. Occasionally,however, a project is ambitious enough to accommodate the needs of the most demanding clients and the most fragile environment. The Datai, a five-star hotel on a popular resort island in northern Malaysia, is an example of how far developer and architect can go to achieve a symbiosis between terrain and built form, tradition and tourism, vernacular styles and Modernism. The Australian architect, Kerry Hill, was involved from the outset in selecting the 750-hectare site, which includes a beach, untouched rainforest and a sensitive ecosystem of swamps, streams and wildlife. A further distinctive element of the terrain is a ridge that drops sharply to the waterfront. Hill sited the hotel away from the beach to minimize its impact on the waterfront, placing the complex on the ridge to provide spectacular views and leave more of the forest undisturbed. Another significant decision was to fragment the hotel into free-standing buildings, pavilions and isolated villas, reducing the mass of the complex and allowing flexibility in siting to minimize the felling of trees."
Chinese New Year is coming, I would recommend The Datai, a great place as vacation in Malaysia, the island, the beach, the breeze, the architecture in Malaysia, truely Asia.
To find out the room rate.
Image located from http://www.golfin-provence.com

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