Alaya Resort Kuta is unusual in that “some details carry from one space to another, but there is no real continuity,” says Martin Grounds of Perth, Australia-based Grounds Kent Architects (GKA), who had previously designed Alaya Ubud with locally based landscape designer Made Wijaya. Pleased with the result, Alaya Hotels & Resorts commissioned the duo to realize its second Balinese property just outside of Kuta.
Jimmy Gunawan, director of Alaya International Management (AIM) Hospitality, developed the familiar value-design concept with a twist rooted in a diverse group of designers that also included Moroccan-born interior designer Zohra Boukhari, Balinese visual artist Pintor Sirait, and Indonesian fashion designer Peggy Hartanto, who conceived the hotel’s earthy employee uniforms.
The collaborative project took 12 months to complete and saw the designers collaborate to create one hotel with a series of distinct yet unified spaces.
“From the outset, we wanted to keep it consistent with the original Alaya in Ubud, however we also wanted the new hotel to have its own character,” explains Grounds. “The building turned out to be a ‘mongrel’ with its own unique look.”
Reflective marble flooring and ceilings painted to mimic the sky kept it light in the lobby, where abstract chandeliers lend an industrial-inspired flavor. Designed by Sirait, a full-size, stainless steel Formula One (F1) racecar installation was mounted against an off-form concrete wall, where it serves as a lobby statement piece. “The F1 car is [virtually] worshipped in Asia,” explains Sirait, who also devised a series of light fixtures throughout the vestibule. “Young and old flock to these races for thrilling entertainment.” Along with rust-colored accent walls and curved plaster column bases, star-shaped cutouts create additional visual interest and appear in select spaces of the hotel.
“The walls were going to be polished gray, but it became obvious that this was a mistake as the building started to resemble a World War II battleship,” says Grounds. “We then tried a rust red paint, and the building suddenly looked like it was made in reference to Indonesian Dutch colonial architecture. It was unintentional, but we were pleased with the result.”
Boukhari designed the hotel’s DaLa Spa, which includes six treatment rooms, with a vintage-inspired atmosphere that reinterprets the brand’s signature spa aesthetic. “Each DaLa Spa varies to suit the property,” says Boukhari. “Dala means leaf in Sanskrit, and every leaf is slightly different.”
Conceived by GKA, the 116-room hotel’s accommodations comprised deluxe rooms; Alaya rooms, some with direct pool access; junior and family suites; and two approximately 328-square-foot Alaya suites. Salvaged teak and a neutral gray color palette within each room juxtapose a full-height Bali surf wall that features enlarged images by locally based photographer Jason Childs.
In addition to the property’s lush foliage, Wijaya designed the indoor-outdoor Sukun restaurant, which almost mirrors the connecting lobby it with contiguous, off-form concrete, star-shaped cutouts, and the same sky-patterned ceilings.
“Creating a view amongst the dense commercial area of Kuta was a challenge, but we succeeded by allowing the tropical gardens to encroach into the main restaurant and lobby,” explains Gunawan.
A four-story mosaic wall, also designed by Wijaya, sits adjacent to the restaurant in the hotel’s central courtyard. Rising above the approximately 82-foot-long pool, the wall adds an “unmistakably Bali look and is the architectural highlight of the property,” Grounds says.
