| Made Wijaya will be sharing his ideas and experience on tropical garden designs at The Star Property Fair 2009 on 29th November at 3.00 p.m. » Click here for more details |
By Johnni Wong | Nov 21, 2009
Breaking design taboos
Developers of luxury resorts in Asia are usually conservative and tend to freak out when design taboos are broached by innovative designers.
According to well-known landscape and design guru Made Wijaya, there are many attempts at creating luxury boutique resorts in region. But few can achieve the success of the Four Seasons Group or the Aman Group of resorts simply because there is a lack of conviction when it comes to design integrity and follow-through.
The Bali-based author of several popular books on tropical design and landscaping, Made who is originally from Brisbane, will present a thought-provoking lecture on the do’s and dont’s of successful modern tropical design at The Star’s Property & Home Fair 2009 to be held from Nov 27-29.
Entitled, The Tropical International School of Architecture, Made (pronounced, Ma-day) who is also known as Michael White, will reveal the latest examples of good and bad design work across Asia and beyond.
Cultural diversity
“For people who wish to build luxury residences and resorts in Asia, my advice to them is not to take the ‘happy’ out of the Hindu (in Bali) or the tropical out of Timbuktu (in Africa), that is, respect local cultural diversity and not try to emulate something you may have seen elsewhere,” says Made in an e-mail interview.
“So often, clients want ‘passion’ but when the artist-designer gets ‘passionate’ about design, your average Asian client freaks out! They rarely have the courage of their conviction, thus only a few developers - Amanresorts, Banyan Tree (in the past decade), Soneva - have achieved success in this difficult area because they respect the cultural reference aspect of design.
“Forays by the Alila group and other developers in boutique luxury resorts have not been such a success because they can't loosen up.”
Made also explains that originally the term - The International School of Architecture - referred to the functional glass-and-steel high-rise of the 60s and 70s which were all “rather boxy and formulaic” but there were great masterpieces.
“My term, The Tropical International School, describes the boxy, formulaic buildings of many of today's tropical architecture - especially the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore adherents - that are very often not tropical and often very formulaic, like 90% of today's microwave oven-looking dream homes and villas in Bali.
“This school of architectural design started in South-East Asia. At the National University of Singapore to be exact. It was a reaction or rejection of the resort styles that had gone septic - too mannerist and feminine-fancy - the back end of the Bali Style movement.
“The International School architects don’t like their buildings to be caressed by nature or nestled in. They like to control nature, for example, with mass plantings or rows of things with no shade trees or architectural (feature) plants.”
Made points out that the Alila Villas Uluwatu, designed by the Singapore architectural firm WOHA, is revolutionary. “But it has not generated buzz in the marketplace. It is not really tropical and (the concept) has taken the 'happy' out of Hindu Bali.”
Another design highlight is the Crown Plaza Airport Hotel at Changi in Singapore, which Made describes as, a “masterpiece of tropical international school” with “marvellous” lighting by Light Directions of Tokyo and signage and interiors by WOHA.
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Landscape designs
From Left to Right: Taj Rebak Marina Resort, Langkawi, Malaysia; Four Seasons Resort, Jimbaran, Bali; Hyatt Aryaduta Hotel, Jakarta
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Continue reading and more designs from Made Wijaya: Breaking design taboos 2
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