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Datai Hotel, 1993
Teluk Datai Resorts Sdn Bhd
Architects: 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 5-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
sitting to minimize the felling of trees.
The hotel contains 84 rooms, broken into 4 blocks, linked by open
walkways and arranged around a swimming pool, and 43-standing
villas, located on the lower slopes of the site between the ridge
and the beach. Common areas such as restaurant, a spa and a beach
house are distributed around the site in pavilions, a form drawn
from the local building vernacular. The various elements of the
complex also follow local traditions in being built on either slits
or heavy stone bases to protect them from ground dampness, and in
the use of generous overhangs to keep off rain. Local building
materials, notably timber harvested from the forest are used
extensively throughout.
When trees in a tropical rainforest are cleared to make way for
construction, species on the perimeter that are not resistant to
ultraviolet rays begin to burn out. This "festering wound"
effect can be mitigated by planning trees that grow very fast,
blocking the ultraviolet rays and allowing slower-growing species to
survive. The architect took amount of this process and carefully
positioned buildings to reduce tree felling. Trained elephants
rather than bulldozers were used to fell the trees because they
cause less damage to the forest, and trees cleared from the site
were used within the structures.
The construction is an elegant synthesis of traditional and
contemporary building methods. Alignments, finishing, joinery and
materials coalesce to create a sophisticated structural vocabulary;
the level of finished achieved is unusual in Malaysia and has set a
new precedent for the region's construction. Though finely wrought,
the complex was designed to weather naturally. A pleasing patina is
already evident on railing and exposed wooden members, which are not
painted or polished but allowed to age gracefully. Creepers grow
over the stone bases of buildings, which are hardy in terms of
weathering. The open pavilions and walkways admit cooling breezes
and generous shaft of light, while enhancing a sense of interaction
with nature.
Didier Lefort, interior designer, was involved from the inception of
the design and created some of the architectural details, such as
the railing that forms a motif throughout the hotel. Because the
local woods, used for the interiors, are also the predominant
building material, the hotel offers a seamless integration between
interior and exterior.
The popularity of the hotel with its clients is a testament to the
responsible and sensitive approach adopted by the architect, who has
provided a sense of luxury and sophistication, while respecting a
remote natural environment.
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