Soneva Fushi Resort Hotel

A five-star hotel, voted by Conde Nast Traveller as the ‘Number one hotel in the world’ this 100 bed resort hotel complex is located on the North Baa Atoll in the Maldives, placed at the forefront of sustainable tourism.

To maintain an intimate scale and provide a wide variety of facilities for the guests, the 50 hectare island resort was divided into three small ‘villages’. Restaurants, bars and diving schools are built using palm tree masts and wooden decks reaching out into the shallow, clear, blue lagoons. By contrast, the private guest shelters are built using cleared trees and leaf thatch on the edge of the tropical forest overlooking the beach.

Key designer drivers saw the team incorporate indigenous materials and employ the traditional boatbuilding skills of the seafaring people. The design of the five-star facilities thus draws its inspiration from the wooden hulls, masts and canvas sails of dhow fishing vessels, reinterpreted in a contemporary manner.

In collaboration with the national government, very careful consideration was given to the delicate local ecosystem resulting in a fully sustainable, self-contained development.