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MUANG KULAYPAN HOTEL KOH SAMUI, THAILAND |
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ARCHITECTURE / INTERIOR DESIGN |
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| M.L. Archava Varavana |
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Architect M.L. Archava Varavana has given this Samui island retreat a design blending Zen form and Southern Siam style, creating a setting where the décor excites the senses through calm rather than senseless excitement.
The unassuming, two-story hotel has no lobby, but an intriguing sunken meeting area that faces the North Chaweng Beach. Through hallways suffused with light, staff dressed in black chiffon and silk glide by, serving morsels on dishes edged with ancient Thai numerals. The beachfront hotel is named after an ancient Javanese city in which a royal love story unfolded and became the legend of Prince Inao. Mother nature is echoed in the architectural layout, carefully blending in with the rise and fall of the surrounding landscape and providing a sometimes not so gentle lesson in humility: Featuring Thai roofs so low you must lower your head to enter or leave – at the risk of those, who are unused to this, having this lesson literally knocked into them. Look higher up the roof though and you’ll be rewarded by seeing sculptures of seven children holding sacred objects in their hands – the perfect symbols of innocence, simplicity and joy. The hotel’s atmosphere gently reminds us of these elements, without aspiring to excess.
All rooms feature balconies and batik-covered beds, some on a raised platform, Japanese style. The interiors are simple, where the bathroom’s glossy black tiles are perhaps the most extravagant touch. All furnishings of raw materials were designed by Varavana too and made on-site, except for the bed in the VIP Inao room, which once belonged to King Rama IV of Thailand, the architect’s great-great-grandfather. |
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