DESIGN
THE ST . REGIS MALDIVES VOMMULI RESORT IMPARTS A VISUAL MESSAGE OF ECOLOGY , FRAGILITY .
By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
One of the first things guests see as their seaplane descends onto tiny Vommuli Island in the Maldives is a giant lobster .
That ’ s actually the spa , but it ’ s just the beginning of the visual connection to nature designed into the St . Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort , which is divided into four zones – lagoon , beach , coast and jungle – all suggesting the delicate and complicated organisms that define it . The kids ’ club and salon are inspired by banyan trees . The bar curves like a whale shark , the library spirals like a seashell , and one of the six restaurants , Orientale , suggests a clam . The lagoon villas nod to manta rays , the original inspiration for the design language .
It ’ s all ringed by a shallow coral reef that belies the sudden plunge into the blue depths of the Indian Ocean .
“ There is absolutely nothing ecological or in any way sustainable about building a resort in the middle of the Indian Ocean ,” says Chiu Man Wong , founder of Singapore-based WOW Architects and Warner Wong Design and the architect of the resort ,
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