OVERVIEW
Dusit Thani Resort and Spa is planned and designed as a model sustainable development. The project aims to maintain and reinforce key site assets and public value:
• Native landscape habitats are preserved.
• Existing rock outcroppings are integrated.
• Site hydrology is maintained and celebrated as a storyline.
• Run-off water quality impacts to ocean are mitigated.
• On-site materials are used in new construction.
• Public ocean access is maintained, as is public access to pool amenities.
• Prized viewsheds are protected.
• Landscape art is used to tell stories about the region.
The project draws inspiration from regional landscapes, natural lagoons, and rugged cliff-based topography. These elements work together to dramatically link hillside forest and ocean environments.
Contemporary crafting is used to express symbolic references to these systems, to celebrate the co-existence of man and nature.
BROAD INTENT
Dusit Thani Resort and Spa is an environmentally sensitive resort on the coast of Twin Moon Bay, a beautiful and unspoiled destination named for its two crescent-shaped beaches. It serves as the spatial and ecological connection between planned hillside guest villas and community, and the Pacific Ocean.
Just east of Shenzhen, a fast growing and technologically advanced city, Twin Moon Bay is facing tourism pressure, and thus all new development is regulated by rigorous environmental criteria. A strict coastal setback line, coupled with narrow site geometry results in constrained ocean relationships. These conditions are exacerbated by a coastal highway separation from the beach and ocean. Landscape architects were challenged to create a memorable and low-impact resort experience on this hampered hillside site.
ECOLOGICAL INSPIRATION
Initiated with site planning principles, the landscape design draws inspiration from regional landscapes, natural lagoons, and rugged cliff-based topography. These elements are foundational to placemaking, but are reinforced with manufactured landscapes, landscapes that co-exist with natural landscapes.
The project functions as an ecological steppingstone, the restoration of the natural transect from rainforests to Acacia forest, to riparian and aquatic systems, and ultimately to coastal environments. Landscape design links these environments - visually, ecologically and as reinforced with contemporary artistic expression.
INTEGRATED DESIGN
Rather than create an artificial landscape that requires high maintenance under challenging coastal conditions, landscape design is envisioned as an evolving and adaptive set of gardens, each rooted in native species. The landscape is to be perceived as extension of the hillside forest, and as a bold but integrated transition from ocean to hillside environments.
Detailed design is intended to expressively reinforce coastal context. The graphic image of light-colored art pieces and site furniture floating over sinuous and sculptural planes is integral to the iconic, ocean-inspired aesthetic. Other site forms convey abstract references to coastal geometries and topography.
PLACEMAKING EMPHASIS
Simple and understated design character drives placemaking emphasis, in part, on natural assets. Contemporary forms do not attempt to replicate nature, but rather express symbolic homage to it.
Overall landscape design creates a nature-responsive haven, a seaside getaway for the thriving global metropolis of Shenzhen, a place where stewardship is fostered for guests and the local community.
