The wow factor starts with a spectacular 328-foot-long, infinity-edge, cyan-tiled swimming pool surrounded by white sun umbrellas and lounge chairs. With views of the Andaman Sea, dotted with atolls and the limestone karsts of Unesco World Heritage Site Phang Nga Bay in southern Thailand, fresh sky and sea colors permeate COMO’s new resort in Phuket, Point Yamu-also the Singapore-based hotel group’s first Thai property outside Bangkok.
Though Point Yamu by COMO features the luxury brand’s signature pared-back, contemporary aesthetic, it also lets the surrounding landscape do the work, with a design that is a natural extension of the sea and sky around it. Sitting atop a hill overlooking Cape Yamu, a peaceful peninsula on the east side of Phuket, the 18,000-square-foot property has panoramic views of lush greenery and the sparkling sea.
“Point Yamu is a unique place,” says Italian designer Paola Navone, who also completed Metropolitan by COMO in Miami Beach, open this past February. “It was impossible not be inspired by this location.” An aesthetic that leans to a continuity between indoors and outdoors, Novone created an airy, open layout with clean, modernist lines featuring local materials and the thematic use of blue and white.
“I share with COMO the idea that luxury today can be the appreciation of simplicity, a respect of traditions, and still be modern and contemporary,” Navone explains. In the striking, open-air lobby, 24 white lampshades modeled on lobster traps-some almost 10 feet long-sway slowly in the breeze, suspended from a towering ceiling supported by eight mosaic-covered pillars. In the center, Thai teak tables are stacked in layers and display flowers, antiques, sculptures, and humorous kitsch selected by the designer. “I like to promote local crafts in non-conventional ways,” she says.
Like the lobby, the interiors of the rooms, restaurants, and spa, feature Thai artwork, fixtures, Italian furnishings, and dazzling use of color-such as shades of orange inspired by a monk’s robe-reflecting Navone’s desire to create “an intimate and natural mood to COMO’s attitude toward pleasure,” she says.
The 79 spacious guestrooms and suites and 27 private pool villas all have unobstructed, sweeping sea views. Inside, a color palette of white and turquoise permeates, with creative touches added: the main mirror with hand-painted smudges around the edge; Sino Portuguese-designed floor tiles; a row of Buddhist hand gestures, called mudra, on the wall. The tiled bathrooms have a drenching rain shower and deep oval bathtub.
“Ceramic is one of the most important crafts in Thailand,” says Navone, who used it on various surfaces throughout, including on special blocks that create transparent partitions, on parts of furniture, tabletops, and for the numbers on guestroom doors.
The property’s two restaurants feature handmade dinnerware that Navone had produced in Chang Mai. Serving Italian comfort food, La Sirena is long, spacious, and window-walled, with white marble tables, turquoise and white chairs and mini sofas, and a black and white tiled floor. With slow-turning large woven wicker wheels overhead, it has a relaxed seaside atmosphere.
Cozy and colorful, with wall-sized mosaics of goldfish and bubble-shaped lamps, is Nahmyaa, featuring spicy southern Thai cooking mixed with influences from Chinese to Malay.
