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<\/em><\/p>\nWhere there\u2019s a cornucopia of marine life, there\u2019s Pantai Torok.<\/p>\n
The unspoiled waters in the Elysian bay, gaping down the white sandy coast of southern Lombok Island, ripple with everything from giant sea turtles to coral reefs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe even have the dugong,\u201d says Jack Brown, one of the area\u2019s most prominent expatriates. \u201cYou can see them from the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown, along with business partner Kevin Deisser, is developing the first Gran Meli\u00e1 project on the island. The USD70-million project, crowned Best Hospitality Development (Asia) at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards in 2020, will be, as Meli\u00e1 Hotels International CEO Gabriel Escarrer described it, a \u201cdestination resort in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The seeds for the project germinated in faraway Mallorca where University of Granada alum Deisser met fellow hospitality industry stalwart Brown. In 2015, the duo reunited halfway across the world in Gili Trawangan where they established the business outfit that would become Invest Islands.<\/p>\n
Having banked land in exotic sites across the Indonesian archipelago, the development company now boasts around 60 hectares of landed assets under management. But it was Pantai Torok that captivated the team.<\/p>\n \u201cThe location was the first draw,\u201d says Brown. \u201cIt has this idyllic, pristine beach, and you have the whole bay to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n The landowners, a tight-knit community of farmers, had been surprisingly willing to part with the site. Although a variety of crops grew well in some places, the site was too steep in general to be agriculturally sustainable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt worked out quite well because the locals, in general, prefer flat land,\u201d says Brown. \u201cWe\u2019re like, \u2018Well, we want the hill because we get the views. We can have the altitude and see more from up there.\u2019 Also, beachfront land is not the best for growing because of the salt.\u201d<\/p>\n lnvest Islands acquired plots incrementally from the landowners, many of whom are related to each other. From a single land certificate of less than a hectare, Invest Islands\u2019 acquisitions multiplied to 16 hectares. \u201cIt was a kind of chain reaction,\u201d recalls Brown.<\/p>\n There are beautiful undulating hills on the site\u2014interesting angles. I wanted to do something integrated into the landscape: bringing in a natural aspect that made the buildings feel like they\u2019re almost growing from the ground<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The site was initially master-planned as a private residential development with two- and three-bedroom villas. \u201cOriginally it was, \u2018Hey Charlie, we need some awesome-looking villas that could be built on steep land,\u201d says Brown, referring to Charlie Hearn, founder of Bali-based firm Inspiral Architects. \u201cBut we hadn\u2019t defined what the project was, what it was going to be, and who was going to manage it.\u201d<\/p>\n That manager turned out to be Meli\u00e1 Hotels International no less. The Spanish hotel chain and Invest Islands last year inked a 15-year hotel management agreement, ensuring the project will be built and operated up to par with the opulent standards of the Gran Meli\u00e1 brand.<\/p>\n Under the new master plan, the site\u2019s 2.3-hectare beachfront gives rise to 22 villas, designed by Balinese design practice Studio WNA, plus a beach club designed by Inspiral. Around 105 villas stud the hillsides in thematic zones: the modernist Aurora residences; the La Residenza homes, styled after the eponymous 1920s architectural movement; and, on the site\u2019 steepest points, eco-luxury villas by Inspiral. The site also hosts luxurious Kayma tented suites for glamping enthusiasts.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are beautiful undulating hills on the site\u2014interesting angles,\u201d says Hearn. \u201cI wanted to do something integrated into the landscape: bringing in a natural aspect that made the buildings feel like they\u2019re almost growing from the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n More: Bright future awaits Indonesia as economy rebounds and consumer sentiment improves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The slopes challenged Inspiral as much as the builders, Balinese construction giant Tunas Jaya Sanur (TJS), which signed a memorandum of understanding with Invest Islands in 2020. The project necessitated numerous excavations into the mountain and employed the use of many retaining walls. Construction was especially arduous during the rainy season, let alone the pandemic.<\/p>\n Defining the roads and access routes relative to the plots, many of which had been presold, weighed heavily on the architects. The accuracy of the curve radiuses on the roads was crucial to the master-planning process, too.<\/p>\n \u201cDesigning on a steep hill is a double-edged sword,\u201d says Hearn. \u201cIn one sense, it allows you to do things which make the building look more spectacular. The biggest challenge is working out all the routes and inclines to get to all the various plots and locations because we\u2019ve got to make sure that works for an easy sense of transport accessibility to every site.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though they proved easier to work on than the hillside, the flatlands presented the team with another quandary entirely. The low gradient of the beachside meant that the units behind the waterfront villas do not get full bay views. To add elevation to the area, builders utilised land from the hillside excavations.<\/p>\n While not one for pastiches of vernacular architecture, Hearn made sure to slip Lombok\u2019s character into the buildings. The island\u2019s famous ikat textiles and handicrafts suffused the conception of the design, with abstracted patterns finding their way to the roofs, screens, and motifs.<\/p>\n \u201cLombok has quite a distinctive style so we put little aspects of that into the project,\u201d says Hearn. \u201cJust being here in Indonesia where you have a certain way of living\u2014that changes your perspective. The culture here, there\u2019s no way of escaping it. It\u2019s such a strong culture that it embeds you, and it consequently comes out in the design.\u201d<\/p>\n Adhering to Inspiral\u2019s ethos, the project keeps the supply chain as close to home as possible. The stone finishes, for example, are sourced from Lombok and Java. Inspiral also recommends eco-friendly treated bamboo and plantation timber in general. \u201cWe always make a big point of never using timber that\u2019s from rainforests,\u201d says Hearn.<\/p>\n To reduce the strain on groundwater, edifices are equipped with rainwater catchment tanks as well as greywater reuse systems. Solar roof panels provide counterpoints to the grid.<\/p>\n More: 6 reasons why Bogor, Indonesia is an up-and-coming address<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n When it finishes in 2024, Gran Meli\u00e1 Lombok will feature a YHI spa, a Yoshi Izakaya restaurant, a fitness centre, and a kids\u2019 club, among others. Lombok\u2019s prospects energise Brown, who attributes his entrepreneurial spirit to his great-grandfather who worked in Scotland\u2019s Harris Tweed industry. With its rising middle class, Indonesia is well placed to provide the property, only the second Gran Meli\u00e1 project in the country, a dependable fount of guests.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get people moving up and they like to have something like Meli\u00e1, Spanish luxury intertwined with Lombok\u2019s culture and heritage,\u201d says Brown. \u201cIt\u2019s something unique and quite desirable from an experiential perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n With the might and splendour of the Meli\u00e1 brand behind it, the team waxes optimistic about the resale value of the units and the overall appeal of the resort. Like the turtles circling Pantai Torok\u2019s reefs, the fauna of a different kind will have more reason to come back to Lombok.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the hillside, you\u2019re like an eagle, perched, ready, surveying the land,\u201d says Hearn, adding, \u201cwhereas, down the beach, you are more like a shell, sat on the ground, absorbing, trying to catch the light and breezes differently.\u201d<\/p>\n The original version of this article appeared in\u00a0Issue No. 170<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine<\/a>. Write to our editors at\u00a0propertyreport@propertyguru.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gran Meli\u00e1 Lombok makes the most of its paradisiacal site in the island\u2019s coastal hills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":29617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[541,97],"tags":[299,607,154],"class_list":["post-29616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-focus","category-magazine","tag-architecture","tag-design","tag-indonesia","news_country-indonesia","news_author-al-gerard-de-la-cruz"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.asiapropertyawards.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/201109_HQVILLA_EXTER-RENDER_03-1.jpg\")
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