Ed Tuttle strides into the salon of Bangkok's Sukhothai hotel, sinks into a plush chair and looks about approvingly. 'I always love coming here,' he says in a soft voice. 'It's very much my baby, you know.' The sprawling, low-set, elegantly minimal hotel oozes Zen-like calm. Labyrinthine corridors meander to vanishing point, offering up glimpses of beauty: formal courtyards, lotus ponds, green spaces. There's a poetry and rhythm at play here, as indeed there is in each of Tuttle's designs, most notably the Aman resorts he has created for Indonesian businessman Adrian Zecha. To the coterie of well-heeled Zecha groupies - call them Amanites - the Seattle-born, Paris-based Tuttle is no less than a demi-god, creating perfect pockets of eco-friendly, understated luxury.
Tuttle's gaze wanders across the ceiling and out to the garden, as though he is taking some kind of inventory. A cloud of concern creases his features and he darts an annoyed glance at a string quartet that is droning away like angry wasps. If he seems distracted, it's understandable. As usual, he has a lot on his plate: he's about to preside over a facelift for the Sukhothai's rooms, as well as design a new spa.
It has also just been announced that Amanresorts and Natural Park have closed a deal to transform the crumbling 115-year-old Customs House, perched on a prime plot on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, into a five-star deluxe hotel, which, of course, demands the Tuttle touch. Called the Aman Resort Bangkok, the one billion baht ($193 million), 33-room, ultra-luxury property is expected to be completed by late 2007.
He'd prefer not to comment on this project and considers it bad form to discuss upcoming works.
'I'd rather be left alone to get on with the job and let the buildings speak for themselves when they're finished,' he says.
Tuttle is happy, though, to continue his architec-tural lecture. 'The Sukhothai period was a very classical period. I love the colonnades, the verticality of the architecture, and that was the inspiration for the hotel. The idea was to create a place with a certain tranquillity, an elegance and classicism, mixing Thai and European elements. Something that's solid, simple and elegant.'