HALF of the fun of traveling to the beach is getting to stay in different resort hotels, trying out various cuisines, checking out the facilities, pampering oneself in a nice bathroom, and enjoying a bed that is thoughtfully put together with the promise of a good night?s sleep. The other half of the fun is discovering new eye candy.

While most hotels put a premium on service to support the whole hotel experience, very few introduce visual novelty as something to enjoy and remember. As people are starting to recognize that design is a critical component of a user experience, more hospitality facilities are investing in their own one-of-a-kind visual offering for guests to remember them by and many have gone out of the box and have stepped into the future of resort living.

One such gem of a hotel is the Sala Resort on quiet Mai Khao beach in Phuket. Built nearly two years ago, Sala is definitely not your typical beach resort. This is where Bauhaus modernist meets baroque romantic. This is where cast concrete walls, tall glazed windows and lean-to roofs are executed together with the typical resort hotel elements?sheer curtains, decorative tiles, large pillows and cast stone bathtubs?to create a visual experience that brings two seemingly different worlds together.

As one arrives at the hotel, black paved walkways are shaded by steel-framed structures with flat roofs, an architectural theme that permeates the entire facility. The public area pavilions, namely the front desk and the restaurant, are predominantly in black, taupe and accents of white. In the evenings the blackness of it all makes the perfect backdrop for its reflecting pools and candles that all glimmer and shimmer against the darkness.

While the structures are clean and linear, decorative features are intricately detailed, a fitting contrast to the hardness and angularity of the structures. These come in the form of wooden fretwork, sandblasted glass panels, crystal chandeliers, blown glass artwork and floral etching on timber slats.

The guest villas, in contrast to the public spaces, are coated in the lighter shades of crème, taupe and white that wash their interior spaces with natural light. High ceilings and tall door and window openings further emphasize the lightness and airiness of the villas.

Separate structures

Picking up from the concept of Balinese cluster houses, the larger villas have separate structures for the living spaces and the bedrooms, and are linked together by a lap pool bordered by patios and sun decks. The bathrooms are almost all entirely outdoor, making use of practically all the rear perimeter spaces of the clusters for expansive wash, bath and toilet spaces that seamlessly integrate into the landscape.

Certain areas in the resort like the spa, sways into looking very modernist Japanese, while the public washrooms by the restaurant went the way of avant garde and toyed around with human scale: It had tall, seemingly table-like nooks for the lavatory areas, a replication of the dining tables in the restaurant outside.

What was most interesting is that while other modern resorts tend to look barren, hot and harsh, Sala managed to balance this with the texture of its landscaping and the tactile experiences within each of the spaces. Somehow, anything within reach had some texture, color or softness that compensated for the plainness, neutrality and angularity of its forms.

Contrasting elements are a common sight in this resort hotel and modernist and romantic were never so good together. This is great eye candy.