The hotel’s design is to embrace the uniqueness of the site context in a parcel of Kota Kinabalu City Centre that sandwiches between Signal Hill and the South China Sea. Despite the compact site, the lobby level is set back from the roadside walkway to respond to the streetscape to receive guests via the bamboo garden on the reflection pond as the transition buffer space between internal and external. The creation of a punch-through drop-off driveway connects Jalan Haji Saman and Lorong Ewan allowing permeability of pedestrians/cyclists to access and revitalise the rear lane.
The uniqueness of the hotel design lies in its exterior concept and interior décor, which embodies the journey through Sabah’s topography i.e., the forest and rocky mountain of Sabah’s iconic Mount Kinabalu, using the metaphor of a tree to describe its different spaces. From the bottom of the metaphoric tree, the lobby level features green bamboo and rocks as the roots of a tree. The Back of House floors with external slanting louvres represents crossing tree branches above, while the guest room floors depict tree trunks and their vertical-lined pattern. The top two floors comprising the All-Day Dining, sky bar and infinity-edge swimming pool form the Crown of the tree and open up the picturesque view towards Signal Hill and the South China Sea.
The interior design of the hotel emphasises the local culture colours and nature of Sabah. The event floor (3F) narrates the walk in the Borneo Forest of Sabah through the vertical wall cladding as the tree lines, while the striped green/brown carpet is an abstraction of the forest floor with earth, shrubs and moss composed of artwork of “Borneo Earth”. Meanwhile, cultural references to local ethnic group clothing and handicraft are interpreted with abstraction, implied to architectural finishes for walls, bedhead and sliding doors for the guest rooms and common area.
Further up to the All-Day Dining (22F), the concept of “Dining in the Gardens” is instigated by integrating the interior space with nature. Upon arriving from the lift lobby, guests will be welcomed by unobstructed views of the sea in front and the hill behind the hotel. The food counters are kept low and located in the centre area to allow continuous spectacular views of the window-side dining seats. Wooden ambience enclosed with indoor and outdoor plants section is created for a unique experience of dining in a tropical forest. As for the private dining area, the flexible banquet seating space is designed with wooden stripes integrated with plants and butterfly artwork to illustrate the natural life of the valley.
The quality of details and craftsmanship is evident throughout the hotel, with finishing details being concealed and hidden from sight. The vertical timber slits and aluminium cladding are being crafted with special detail and designed in modules to be orderly and installed with randomness. Natural material (eg. Stone) had been designed and finished with different surface treatments (honed, flamed, etc.) to create tactile experiences, invigorating the full potential of the said material. Furthermore, fine edges are achieved through tapered termination detailing from external cladding to interior fixtures. To further enrich the authentic local experience for the guests, local craftsmen and artists are engaged to handcraft exquisite art pieces that portray the nature and culture of Sabah.
As this hotel is one of a kind, its character relevant to the context and place, the occupancy of the hotel continually achieves more than 80% and is frequently patronised as a hot spot by locals. This hotel also obtained a score of BuildQAS 84.3 which was the highest in Malaysia at that time, demonstrating exceptional workmanship executed throughout the details and finishing.
