Original Vision Limited: Honorable Mention of World Design Awards 2020. Hyatt Hotels developed the Hyatt Place brand in the US as a limited service resort product that is economical, clean and user friendly.  Our client engaged them for the Hyatt Place Phuket as these brand features matched his desires for the location and the target market.

DESIGN BRIEF & SITE CONSIDERATIONS

When we started on the design, Hyatt were just beginning to roll out the brand in Asia so we worked with them to establish the parameters that would work best for the tropical climate of Phuket.  This included making the food and beverage and recreation facilities more of an indoor/outdoor experience and providing larger and more openable balcony space for the rooms.

Limited service does not mean limited experience.  The ground floor of the entrance building is dedicated to guest services and the all-day dining restaurant.  These all spill out into the terraced swimming pool gardens that link the three building blocks.  The gym and meeting rooms also front onto this oasis style space that is the main focus for most of the guest rooms.

There are three main elements that inspired the design.  The first concerns the master plan.  As the site is very steep we were concerned that there may be a shortage of useable open space.  We therefore decided to locate all the accommodation on the periphery so as to free up an internal courtyard and provide the heart of the development as a terraced pool garden.  Massing wise we have arranged the three blocks of accommodation around this oasis to make the most of the view and available day and sun light.  The height limits have not been maximised so that the central space is not overpowered and also to provide ocean views to as many rooms as possible.

Finally the operator’s room specification inspired the zig-zag elevation treatment.  Their requirement for a ‘Cozy Corner’ in each room influenced the articulation of balcony and solid wall and by alternating the layout on each floor we achieved this highly textural façade.  

The concept behind the function of the resort is inspired by the changing landscape of contemporary, multi­tasking leisure travelers. The target market is a newly identified segment who have successfully adapted to today’s “24/7 lifestyle” and share a mindset and way of life that revolves around seamlessly merging personal and professional activities. It achieves this by offering a balanced mix of spacious, comfortable and functional guestrooms along with efficient and concise facilities.

LOCATION

The resort is located in the north end of Patong, the most vibrant town on the island of Phuket.  Situated on the favoured west coast, Patong has a 3.5km beautiful sandy beach with the most comprehensive collection of restaurants, bars and facilities the island has to offer.  Being only 200m from this beach the Hyatt Place Phuket enjoys close proximity to these amenities without the burden of exorbitant land prices and thereby being able to provide a top notch location with favourable room rates meeting the target market square on.

The surrounding building stock is very in cohesive and messy.  This has been a result of no real planning direction from the authorities and a considerable amount of illegal construction.  Our goal was to create a very clean yet robust statement that attempts to calm the surrounding visual noise and provide a breathing space in the urban fabric.

ARCHITECTURE & USE OF SPACE

The most striking innovation to the architecture is the ziggurat façade.  This has been achieved by handing each floor above each other so that the balconies and the “Cozy Corners” are on opposite sides from the floor below or above.  The challenge was to make sure the service ducts and the structure all lined through.

The added benefit of this configuration is that it provides inter-balcony privacy that is often a problem for tropical resort hotels.

APPEARANCE AND FINISH

It is always a challenge designing a budget hotel and making an interesting architectural statement.  Our strategy to create something special with the Hyatt Place Phuket was to take two directions in the design.  At a macro level we first created a highly textural expression of solid and void that ultimately become reliant on just two principle materials/textures to achieve our desired effect.  At the more tangible level we reduced the palette of ‘touchable’ finishes to a closely suited minimum.  This helps to enhance the feeling of space and reduce the complexity of detailing.

Firm: Original Vision Limited
Architect: Fiona Overton
Category: Hospitality Built
Project Location: Phuket
Team: Adrian McCarroll, Stephen Gorton; Prasert Chanhom; Yutthapong Wonglumduankij, Ricky Liu
Country: Thailand
Photography ©Credit: Fiona Overton

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