Seen from the air, the line of palm thatched roofs stretches out from the land and into the water, extending the island nearly a kilometre into the ocean. Lush with vegetation, the island is an oasis of green, edged with white sand. For architect Murad Ismail the remote Baa Atoll in the Maldives is the home of his best known creation – the Four Seasons resort Landaa Giraavaru. Opened for business in 2007, it was recently declared one of the World's 10 Hottest Designer Hotels and Resorts by the Home Journal Magazine, Hong Kong.
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| The Italian restaurant Blu: Murad’s personal favourite |
Murad, along with his partner Channa Daswatte, is a director of a Colombo-based architecture firm. The two men first met in the offices of Geoffrey Bawa. They got along so well that they created MCID Associates in 1997, the same year they took over as co-directors of Geoffrey Bawa Associates.
Their working environment was an intimate one, with only four people at any given time. Years later, Murad employed the same approach when designing the Four Seasons resort. He kept his team small and says he owes each of the eight people on it a debt of gratitude.
Murad himself is hands on, and appears to have been involved in every aspect of the design – including furnishing the interiors. He began with a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve. His guests needed to leave the hotel having experienced something distinctively Maldivian, rather than the popular pseudo-Balinese style that many of the resorts had embraced. “When we started doing the resort, we travelled around Maldives. The issue for us was that every hotel looked the same. All the mistakes that had happened continued happening.” Scouting through local villages, Murad took note of shapes and textures, even as he discovered that they had much in common with rural houses back home.
His design for the Landaa Giraavaru is characterised by a certain airiness, a lightness of form. The clean lines and high ceilings of his buildings open up to breathtaking views of sky and sea. In not detracting from their environment, they flow into it instead. In designing it, Murad wanted to treat each room as a domain in itself. “It’s all about spatial progression,” says the architect, explaining that he wanted guests to discover the island piece by piece rather than have it laid out before them in one swoop. “I wanted them to just go back with an idea that there is more to experience.”
Living pavilions, lofts and garden areas were all designed to give the occupants of each large suite privacy and space. The spa, spread out over five acres, begins on land and extrudes into the ocean. Of the three restaurants the hotel boasts, the Italian restaurant Blu is Murad’s personal favourite. A glorious view includes the sleek length of an infinity pool seeming to merge into the ocean. In the distance two islands lie framed.
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| Murad: In love with space |
In the spirit of minimalism, many of the walls appear to sport a simple whitewash. Coral dust, dug up while creating the foundations, has been sprayed on the walls giving them a unique finish. In some cases, pigments colour the interiors in surprisingly bright hues – but these have pleasantly faded with the passage of time, says Murad. Even the blue doors are free of paint – they were created using blue ink. Actual coral pieces, debris created by the tsunami, were purchased from the Maldivian government and incorporated into the design of the court yard.
This year, MCID will be adding to the resort with a new bar out on the water and two more suites. Despite or perhaps because of its simplicity, the resort has proved itself a success. Murad attributes this to its ability to inspire a second visit. He knows he’s playing to a small audience, and he wins every time they demand more. “It’s all about hotel psychology,” he says, stressing the importance of getting the small details right. “The money spent to the gimmicks put in is zero,” he says, “but there is that psychology and that’s something you work really hard on.”
The architect, who loves diving and sailing, has worked on over 160 projects in Sri Lanka. Included in these are Water’s Edge and the BARS cafe on Duplication Road. “BARS was one my favourite projects...I wanted people to be sitting outside eating, right alongside a busy road,” he says “and I got them to do it.” In the meantime, the Four Seasons project has been followed by more commissions from big names like Hyaat and Oberoi.
The recession has put these on hold, but Murad believes this breathing room is just what we all need. In Sri Lanka, particularly, thoughtful development is a must. Murad imagines exclusive resorts that will make use of the privacy afforded by Sri Lanka’s gorgeous inland lakes and more affordable hotels that will line our public beaches. Will he be the one to design some of them? Possibly. Certainly, identifying the right style shouldn’t present a problem. “I think Sri Lankan architecture is the best tropical architecture you could find,” he says. |
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