In northern Indonesia, on the coast of the South China Sea, on the east coast of Bintan Island, a customer, the National Investment Alliance, purchased a 54-hectare plot of land to build a resort there. On the island, besides the virgin paradise nature - the coast with white sand and jungle, there are only poor Indonesian villages and a few closed hotels for tourists. As well as assorted restaurants and consumer goods stores. The investor's vision was to create a full-fledged and self-sufficient resort with a meaningful environment, designed primarily for the residents of Singapore, located a forty-minute ferry ride away, and for tourists from China who traditionally visit these places.
From the workshop of Vladimir Bindeman, an architectural and urban planning concept was required, since the owner of the land is going to sell it later in separate lots, while maintaining, however, general management and preventing chaotic development. In order to create a beautiful marketing story, the customer proposed to create on this exotic island for Europeans an unusual European environment for the inhabitants of Southeast Asia, a kind of exotic, to devote individual hotels to architecture and recognizable images of European countries. The architects feared the option of Venice in Las Vegas (the Venturi project, which became a symbol of postmodernism), they did not want to put copies of iconic buildings of certain countries, as they do in Turkish resorts. In the end, Vladimir Bindeman managed to convince the customer to focus more on the modernist architecture of Europe with some interspersed with traditional motives. Six countries were chosen: England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia. In addition, the task was to divide resort housing by typology: hotels with rooms, apartments, townhouses and villas. It turned out two types of classification of buildings - by national architecture and by type of real estate. It remained to place them relative to the coast. As a result, hotels (rather than villas) were chosen for the first line closest to the sea, since they are most occupied at any time of the year. And partly apartments. Thus, on the first line were clusters of England, Italy, Spain, on the second - Russia, France, Germany, on the third, closer to the jungle - a group of houses without "nationality".
The territory of the resort is divided into 17 lots. Entrance - from the southeast corner of the site. At the entrance is the undulating building of the management company, a reservoir and a platform for entertainment events and a market for local goods.
Closer to the sea, there is a more urbanized strip: hotels and apartments. In the center there is a strip of golf courses, a popular sport here.
Closer to the jungle, more sparse buildings were located - groups of villas and townhouses, and behind the driveway, quite in the woods - staff hostels. A pedestrian street is laid between the first and second lines - the main promenade of the resort with a varied infrastructure: restaurants, souvenir shops, equipment rental points, travel agencies and massage parlors. A canopy is assumed over the entire street, entwined with plants to create shade.
The street is long and winding for the sake of beauty and because people are in no hurry at the resort and they do not need to see the end of the perspective to make it easier to navigate. The entire master plan is characterized by smooth, soft lines - for the same reason. In the landscaping, either paving or wooden flooring was used.
Since the climate is hot, the availability of water was imperative. An artificial river is built along the pedestrian street. Numerous, varied ponds and pools are surrounded by clusters of townhouse or apartment buildings. Most of the villas have private pools.
From the recreational infrastructure, there are two piers (existing and new, for yachts) and a funicular for climbing the mountain and ecotourism.
The architectural and urban planning concept of the resort with a national theme is, of course, an interesting task for architects. For two reasons. First, it is always interesting to understand what the national character of architecture is. After all, what is good for a Russian is death for a German, and the Italian dolce vita is not the same as the Spanish conquistador's severity. Here, the architects had to show the national character in modernist architecture, which is difficult by definition, because modernism is a global style that is invented by a pool of international star bureaus, and it is more or less the same in all countries. But, as it turned out, there are still national omens …
The architects managed to solve the national issue largely due to traditional materials, colors and partly forms. In an English hotel, it is red brick with white details, the architecture itself is chosen to be generally neutral, but reminders of Big Ben and a red telephone booth are added. On the pool side, however, the hotel has a more defined modernist image with cantilevered promenades in the style of the London National Theater.
The French hotel is supposed to be faced with light beige stone of the color of Paris, hinting at attics, in addition, in the courtyard we see greenery not only in pergolas, but also on the facades, and vertical gardens are a modern French invention.
In a Spanish hotel, the façades are modernist in design, but with traditional arches, shutters and warm-colored stucco.
For Russia, the architects proposed volumes in the form of caskets and a silvery-gray wooden covering inspired by the Russian north.
"German" buildings received traditional gable roofs, clad in black slate; courtyard facades are modern.
And the "Italian" buildings develop in a modern way the typical Italian theme of terraces, but with glass railings and far removed on modern consoles. Each terrace has a mini-garden, which lowers the surface temperature by several degrees and adds some environmental friendliness to the image of the architecture.
The typical challenges of resort architecture to provide sea views, shade and privacy are handled in different ways. For example, the cantilevered second floors of townhouses create shaded canopies over the first floors, and the offset of the houses in relation to each other increases privacy. The facades overlooking the inland waters are fully glazed, but protected from the sun by slats, protective grilles or deep outriggers.
A paradise theme is added to the national motives. Although the name "Paradise Waters" belongs to the customer, and the association of the resort with paradise is an understandable advertising ploy, there are still funny intersections. Every architect wants to know what kind of architecture there will be in paradise. And such a project is, in a way, an opportunity to answer this question. Although adherents of the classics claim that architecture in paradise will be classic, Architecturium offers a different version. They are stylish white villas with a touch of 1930s avant-garde and transparent 1950s California villas. Pure geometry opposes the landscape, but at the same time provides a unity with it. In two-story buildings, horizontals are emphasized: floor, ceiling, overlap between floors. And as if absent glass walls make the merger with nature complete and continuous. What more to want from a Pacific resort with its clear waters.
