When architect and interior designer Bill Bensley describes Phuket's Indigo Pearl as having a 'real sense of place' he is referring to the link between the new luxury resort and its past: the project is on the site of an old tin mine.
'I wanted to expose ... the fact that a huge [part of the] history of Phuket was in tin mining. The design was inspired by some wonderful old hardwood and steel-plate buildings that would be too costly to construct today, but which have been incorporated into the overall design.'
Indigo Pearl not only tips its hat at the past, it also reclaims the debris left by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
'The beaches were full of remnants of shops and houses that had been washed away,' Bensley says. 'We used the wood for our headboards, pipes for our sinks and tin for some ceilings.'
Raw elements mix with opulence to startling effect and nowhere more than in the resort's industrial-standard taps with copper pipes sleeved in leather (right). Their beauty owes much to the way their brutal edge has been tempered. 'The industrial taps work well with chic basins,' Bensley says. 'Using a rusty pail might enhance the tin idea, but it would not be luxurious.'
