Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) announced a brand new specialty division and international office – HBA Resort in Bali, Indonesia recently. Having already completed award-winning luxury resorts around the world, including Four Seasons Seychelles, Park Hyatt Maldives, Jumeirah Maldives and Eagle Island Botswana, HBA Resort is poised to bring bespoke properties filled with global inspiration and local artisanal spirit to exotic destinations. The new division spearheaded by David Haughton, HBA Principal, who has resided and designed in Bali for the past 25 years is an artist himself and is responsible for leading both HBA Resort offices in Indonesia in Bali and Jakarta. We spoke to David Haughton to know more about the resort and its expansion plans.

HBA Resort specialise in creating bespoke, luxury resort properties globally. Based in Bali, the design team draws inspiration from the region’s enchanting locale working with artisans and craftsman for indigenous and authentic design projects. HBA has already completed more than 50 resorts since 1965 and is currently working on designing on Anzara Nusa Lembongan in Bali, Intercontinental Hotel Bali and New World Grand Bali Resort.

 “As a team, we are excited to provide turnkey design services for operators and clients looking for a more tailored bespoke resort feel, by providing integrated master planning, architecture, landscape and interior design services under one roof. We are also able to add in hospitality design sourcing and procurement utilising the abundant availability of local craftsman and artisans providing cohesive design packages through public areas, F&B, to guest rooms and villa designs. Our environment is always key to our approach, whether in the reference to an island, desert, volcanic mountain or tropical jungle setting: Bali’s enchanting artisan traditions and cultures helps to inspire our unique approach to luxury hospitality design,” says Haughton.

In creating bespoke, luxury resort properties, HBA Resort utilizes a holistic combination of interior design, architecture, landscape, lighting and art – drawing upon the exploration and skills of HBA’s worldwide network of design studios. “The team’s environment is our ethos: whether in reference to an island, desert, volcanic mountain or tropical jungle setting, Bali’s enchantment inspires a unique approach to luxury hospitality. We are currently working on designing on Anzara Nusa Lembongan in Bali, Intercontinental Hotel Bali and New World Grand Bali Resort,” says the Principal.

HBA as a whole has created more than 50 resorts worldwide, including The Cove Atlantis, Dubai, Atlantis Sanya Resort, Double Six, Bali, Como Maalifushi, Maldives and Dolphin Resort Maldives.

So when it comes to the source of inspiration for designing a resort, each project is inherently unique to its local and the client’s desires. Haughton points out, “We carefully examine a hotel’s site to learn its history, heritage and the client’s vision for the future to weave together a comprehensive design concept that allows for many layers of storytelling within the hotel. Being located in Bali, surrounded and inspired by the pure artisanal spirit of tropical island life, the design team has direct and exclusive access to the region’s talented artisans specializing in metalwork, stonework and carving, which serve as further inspiration.”

In the season’s trend, each project is bespoke and rooted in a unique story around the project, built with several considerations in mind after meticulous research. “There is a lot of time spent studying an area and a project before its built to help build the narrative and develop a strong design concept. This helps us to predict the design needs of future guests (five to ten years in the future), while also ensuring that our design will hold up for years to come and satisfy discerning guests and our clients,” says Haughton.

When approaching a hotel or a resort project, Haughton has an eye for detail to align the site’s location and lifestyle destination, expectations of the operators brand. Resorts are similar to a destination holiday residence combining the flow of dining, living and relaxation spaces, through private gardens, artworks and dynamic vistas entwined into a story telling experience. Besides reflecting the need for luxury, the design ethos is to combine a simple and pure approach to preserving and reflecting nature. “We prefer to integrate local materials, into a very relaxed bespoke feel with a strong connection to the external surroundings, be it views of oceans, mountains, deserts, by seamlessly blending interior and exterior spaces,” he says.

The overall mood and inspiration of the approach to design a resort as a temporary guest home experience, is to enhance a connection with nature and the regions vernacular history. We tend to create spaces around focal points, such as unique custom furniture and locally inspired art objects, this approach in the planning phase allows to bring a sense of humanity and cultural relevance to the occupied guest spaces, as a way of translating the indigenous culture and arts of the region into an actual experience to remember.