In the Thai islands there is obviously a huge focus on sunlight, but this unusual resort focuses on moonlight instead.
We saw photos of the new, modern-looking 138-room Sala Samui Chaweng Resort when it opened a few months ago — and it’s a minimalist beauty. However, there’s something more than meets the eye in this design-oriented Koh Samui resort.
The 85 rooms were designed by Bangkok firm Onion with the idea that a person’s view of the moon changes each night — and they wanted to reflect the moon in their design and how the nighttime light will enter the room at various times of a month. They also wanted to pay tribute to neighboring Koh Phangan’s famous Full Moon, Half Moon, and Black Moon parties.
The lunar shapes are built to gracefully mirror, reflect, or pay tribute to the shape and light of the moon. According to the hotel’s marketing communications officer Noppawan Sirinoppakun, everything at Sala was built with sequences of moonlight, shade, and shadow in mind. The designers tried to think of what guests would be most delighted by during their stay, and thought that a romantic, mysterious moon focus suited the modern property to a T.
The round architectural facades and archways, for instance, cast celestial-looking circular shadows.
Moon shapes are visible throughout the resort, where almost everything is white, just like moonlight: their is a circular courtyard, round daybeds, and a perfectly round pool — called the moon pool — with slanted sides meaning that guests can swim from anywhere and there is no specific exit or entry point. The bathtubs in the rooms are moon-shaped and most of the resorts archways are as round as half-moons.
While the beach side reflects the full moon, the garden wing, which is still being completed and slated for opening in January, characterizes the new moon.
Once the sun goes down, moonlight is reflected in the waters of the pool and sea. The resort’s night lighting is also designed to mimic and enhance the look of moonlight.
The designers continued the theme throughout all the rooms. They say that each room is slightly different due to how the light creates shadows in each one.
Another element related to moonlight is the fact that the sea is visible and uninterrupted from most resort vantage points. Even from the lobby, they let the sea be the star. And once the stars are out, the moon upstages them every night.
Getting your moon on does come at a cost, however — rates here start at THB8,500.
Photos: Courtesy of Sala Samui Chaweng Resort
Reader Interactions