Luna2 private hotel, Bali
Early on in the two-year transcontinental creative process, American architect David Wahl informed his Jakarta-based British client and interior design collaborator Melanie Hall of Mimpi Designs, that the rare 1,600 sq m of prime Seminyak beachfront on which Hall’s Luna2 was located would not be quite expansive enough for two of her dream spaces, the 24-seat cinema and underground cocktail lounge.
Named for the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, Luna2’s five-bedroom Modernist estate marks a giant step away from Bali’s bamboo-clad, antique filled accommodations inspired by the understated luxury of Amanresorts.
Wahl’s severe sliding glass-walled exterior recalls Richard Neutra’s 1946 Kauffman House in Palm Springs. Here too an imposing stone wall acts structurally as the main support spine, while white lacquered horizontals delineate the bi-level property.
The ground floor’s geometric simplicity and open plan lets the party flow from the sunken living room with requisite Noguchi coffee and groovy geometric carpets woven in Vietnam to the well-stocked mirrored bar, extending outside on cool grey slabs to a fishpond inhabited by psychedelic-hued aquatic life.
Marilyn Monroe appears as a Bisazza-tiled mosaic at the bottom of a 20m swimming pool that reaches towards the considerable surf along Seminyak Beach; while a few footprints in the volcanic sand lead to Ku De Ta, the perennially packed lounge where Bali’s most beautiful bodies congregate for sublime sunsets.
Return to the villa and slide onto transparent orange Pedrali chairs in the Pop Art-filled dining room, though seated dinners for 60 can also be organized on the buzz cut lawn. Yellow Formica lines the exhibition kitchen where three Australian chefs headed by Danny Drinkwater (he does double duty as executive chef and GM) turn out twice-baked goats cheese souffle with tomato jam, and wagyu tenderloin, porcini mushrooms and foie gras wrapped in pastry, or comfort foods at any hour for vacationers craving scrambled eggs with caviar, and homemade chocolate Ă©clairs.
1960s inspired furnishings fill the five festive bedrooms upstairs, literally covering the spectrum from a rose-colored children’s room equipped with low- to high-tech toys, to a shocking violet adult lair; while ensuite bathrooms are outfitted with the latest Philippe Starck cube loos.
Source: http://www.wallpaper.com/travel
Add comment February 15th, 2008