Design Focus: Banyan Tree Al Wadi

When it came to selecting a location for their first ever resort, the founders of Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts settled on a 600 acre site in Phuket, Thailand – vast swathes of picturesque coastal land punctuated by lagoons of the most intense cobalt blue.

It soon transpired, however, that the beauty of the site had little to do with the marvels of mother nature and was, in fact, the result of extensive polluting by the site’s previous tenant, a tin mine.

Rather than walking away, the founders set in motion a chain of events that has come to define the luxury hotel chain. They dedicated themselves to cleansing the acid-laden soil and planted more than 7,000 trees, painstakingly transforming an ecological wasteland into the environmentally-sensitive site of the first ever Banyan Tree resort.

“Banyan Tree is about the romance of travel and giving people a ‘sense of place’,” explained David Barclay, assistant vice president of design, Architrave Design and Planning, the design arm of the Banyan Tree Group.
“Through the design and architecture of our resorts, we promote the uniqueness of indigenous cultures. Each Banyan Tree resort is designed to blend into its natural surroundings, using locally-made materials as far as possible, and reflecting the landscape and architecture of the destination,” he added.

UAE debut
These elements are all evident in the newly-opened Banyan Tree Al Wadi in Ras Al Khaimah, which marks the brand’s debut in the UAE.
First and foremost, the Ras Al Khaimah resort was designed to blend unassumingly into a striking desert backdrop, Barclay explained. “At Banyan Tree Al Wadi, the interface between the desert and the resort is intended to be as seamless as possible, providing guests with the experience of staying ‘in’ the desert.
“Consisting of 70 Al Rimal Deluxe pool villas and 31 Al Khaimah and Al Sahari Tented pool villas, the resort sits on 100 hectares of desert plains, of which 60% is dedicated to a nature reserve housing indigenous wildlife and flora.
“Designed to retain the natural feel, topography and vegetation of the desert, the pool villas are constructed on valley floors between existing dunes, thus maintaining a degree of privacy and consequently preserving the site naturally,” said Barclay.
While care is always taken to capture the Banyan Tree ethos, each resort features its own unique selling points, and the Ras Al Khaimah property is no different. It is the first Banyan Tree with its own nature reserve, horse and camel stables, water home, bird-hide, and falconry mews.
The emphasis is on creating symbiotic relationships between resorts and their physical surroundings, while playing with local influences and a site’s natural quirks. “If you look at our signature restaurant Saffron, for example, which is a restaurant that can be found across all Banyan Tree properties, each Saffron is uniquely designed. Saffron in Banyan Tree Al Wadi, has been designed overlooking the water-hole so that you have a front-row seat for animal viewing,” Barclay noted.
This is one of a number of ‘interest areas’, Barclay explained. “As the resort is spread out over one quarter of a 100-hectare private nature reserve, we tried to create interest points as guests move through the resort – such as the water-hole, which is a source of water for the animals and overlooked by Saffron, our signature Banyan Tree restaurant, watchtowers on higher ground, the falconry mews with viewing deck, to name a few.”

Asian-Arabian
The resort, which has been dubbed “an oasis of indulgence’, has very consciously embraced local design influences. Customised geometric Arabesque motifs are reiterated in light fittings, fretwork, timber and glass-reinforced concrete panelling.
“To enhance the sense of adventure, we used elements of typical regional architecture,” Barclay explained. “For example, each villa is finished with polished wood, high ceilings, and elaborate Arabic touches of lattice woodwork, stylised motifs and intricate carvings.”
For the block pool villas, the design was inspired by the atypical architectural style of traditional mud-brick housing still seen in Ras Al Khaimah today. This consists of square blocks with private courtyards.
The tented pool villas were inspired by the nomadic lifestyle of the Bedouin. “We created a modernised version of the tents by structuring them on a raised platform for better views and privacy, and added a personal infinity edge swimming pool built with deep blue mosaic to represent an oasis of water.”
While the design ethos is predominantly Arabian, there are also subtle Asian undertones running throughout. The aim was to create a delicately balanced design that was respectful of the hotel’s Middle Eastern setting, but also paid homage to the company’s Asian roots.
“The interior design is mainly Arabic with small Asian hints, such as employing Thai silk for fabric and cushion covers, to bring a little Asian influence into the overall Arabic sensibility. The artwork in public areas is a combination of antiques and contemporary Arabic collections. Thai and Asian artwork is specifically used in our spa and ‘rainforest hydrotherapy’ circuit, and for our signature Thai restaurant, Saffron.
“Over recent years, even with the company growing at a tremendous rate, it has not forgotten its Asian roots. In fact, it has grown to embrace the world’s increased awareness and interest in being Asian. At Banyan Tree Al Wadi, I believe that we have married the perfect design balance of Arabian architectural heritage with Asian touch points,” said Barclay.

Sustainable solutions

Architrave made a point of utilising locally-produced materials and locally-based suppliers. Flooring, cladding and wall tiles were made by RAK Ceramics, for example, while natural stones for bars and water features were extracted from local quarries. Other suppliers included AMS Joinery, Thermavium, RAK Luminar, Bose, Ginox, Promorak and RAK Aluminium Fabrication.
The designers were also conscious of making the resort as sustainable as possible. Showing respect for the natural environment was of vital importance, so villas were build in neutral tones to ensure that they blended seamlessly into the desert backdrop. Meanwhile, the landscape was kept as natural-looking as possible, through the planting of typical desert flora such as cattails, ghaf trees and sidr trees.
In the villas, sliding, full-length windows allow for natural ventilation and reduce the need for reliance on air-conditioning, Barclay explained. “Waste water collected from the resort will undergo a reverse osmosis process so that it can be pumped into the reserve’s water-hole, as well as used for landscape irrigation. Apart from establishing water flow control systems and utilising energy-saving light bulbs, a recycling centre will be set up on site, segregating all waste material,” he continued.
The team were already dealing with a site that had no existing infrastructure to speak of, which presented a whole host of challenges. Using building methods that were as unobtrusive as possible was the cause of further complications.
“There was no existing infrastructure to support such a sprawling villa property, so necessities such as plumbing and roads were built from scratch. Due to the remote location of the resort, the limited access meant that we had to construct a new road from the main highway.
“In wanting to maintain the site naturally, we had to be more sensitive with the type of equipment we employed as well as in the careful preservation of the natural vegetation of the desert. We planted an additional one thousand ghaf trees, sidr trees and local grasses throughout the site. Unobstructive fences and walls to keep the protected wildlife had to be built and constructed in such a way so as to blend seamlessly with the desert landscape and not noticeable,” Barclay detailed.
The end result is a viable reaffirmation of the principles that were laid down all those years ago on a polluted, acid-laden beach-side site in Phuket.