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Article: Island idyll. (Kerry Hill Architects' Datai hotel)
- Article from:
- The Architectural Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 EMAP Architecture. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This dramatic hotel complex is an enlightened response to the fragile ecology o a Malaysian island.
Pulau Langkawi is peninsular Malaysia's largest west coast island, overlooking both the Andaman Sea and the border with Thailand to the north. The island is luxuriantly forested and boasts some of the country's finest coastal scenery. Until recently, because of the island's sheer topographical inaccessibility, only a handful of local fishermen, villagers and smugglers were privy to these natural wonders.
Yet this splendid isolation could not last. Since the early '80s, the Malaysian government has pursued a vigorous policy of development on the island, in an ...