Jalan Teluka Datai is a five-star resort hotel in Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia, situated on a ridge within a lush rainforest near the sea. The hotel contains 124 guest modules, arranged as rooms within blocks of accommodation and as free-standing villas. The design of the resort is extremely sensitive to the fragile environment in which it is set, and demonstrates how a fairly large intervention can be built within a tropical rainforest which allows nature to reclaim the terrain after construction. The buildings themselves are fine examples of a synthesis between traditional forms and materials and the rigour of modern architecture.
“Datai Hotel.” In Modernity and Community: Architecture in the Islamic World, edited by Philippa Baker, 149-160. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
Aga Khan Award for Architecture
