A Quite Long History of Bali Hotel Architecture Part V: Adrian Zecha and Aman

While the design process of The Sukhothai Bangkok began in 1987, Adrian Zecha had sold his shares in Regent International Hotels (RIH) and began to turn to real estate investment in 1986. He set up his own real estate fund, seeking to acquire and sell high-quality hotel assets.

At the same time, he also found a suitable piece of land in Phuket and prepared it as his private vacation home. When he walked from Pansea Beach in Phuket, he had an idea: why not build this place into a small boutique resort hotels with few rooms? Since he has friends from all over the world, there is definitely no shortage of customer groups, and this group of friends must not lack the demand for watching the sea, spending time on leisure vacations on a beautiful beach in Southeast Asia, and regular vacations and gatherings every year will form a group of friends. A new social lifestyle!

He found his good friend Anil Thadani and the two people began to seek investment. The problem is nobody believes this model will succeed. Banks and other investors only believed in major international hotel group with a 500-rooms. Adrian Zecha and Anil Thadani decided to use USD 4 million from their own pocket to build a small hotel with only 40 rooms. At first, Adrian and Ed Tuttle agreed that the design shouldn’t be just another modern hotel with a square bathroom inside a square room, instead they were hoping the design to be as Thai as possible. Adrian Zecha chose to work with Ed Tuttle to…