What kind of hotel truly wins the hearts of its guests? Some people value service, while others prioritise location — everyone has their own standards. For luxury hotels, however, what leaves a lasting impression is often more than just impressive hardware or amenities; it is the ability to create a complete and immersive experience. Beyond grand interiors, well-appointed facilities, and attentive hospitality, design plays an essential role. In addition to showcasing spatial aesthetics, great design conveys a brand’s spirit and cultural identity. Every detail — from material selection and lighting composition to visual storytelling and symbolic meaning — shapes whether guests can genuinely connect with the soul of a space.
For this cover story, we invited Avalon Collective founder and Principal Design Director Cedric Jaccard for an exclusive interview. He shares his insights and philosophy on luxury hospitality design while taking readers through several signature projects. In addition, we turn our attention to some of Asia’s most talked-about new luxury hotels as we explore the design concepts behind these remarkable hospitality destinations.
On the remote edge of the Baa Atoll, where the Indian Ocean slips from pale aquamarine into deep cobalt, escape is redefined through restraint, clarity, and atmosphere. At Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, part of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts’s Maldivian sanctuary, the Landaa Estate Villa has been reinterpreted by Avalon Collective as an exercise in continuity rather than contrast, an architecture that extends the logic of its island setting rather than interrupting it.
Rooted in an ethos of immersive island living within a protected ecological landscape, the resort sits within one of the Maldives’ most environmentally significant regions, where design is inseparable from context and conservation is embedded into the spatial experience.
The transformation unfolds in a refined coastal language. Once anchored by darker tropical timber, the interiors now adopt a luminous palette of washed whites, softened neutrals, and carefully calibrated accents of turquoise and ocean green. Colour is no longer decorative but atmospheric, allowing light, water, and horizon to become the villa’s primary materials.
Here, luxury is defined through reduction. The redesign privileges openness and flow, dissolving the boundary between interior and exterior. Living spaces extend seamlessly toward the shoreline, where shaded terraces and softened thresholds create a continuous dialogue with sea and sky. The villa is no longer an object but a framing device for the shifting seascape beyond.
Within this openness, intimacy is carefully composed. A library lounge introduces a quieter, more introspective register. In contrast, entertainment and communal zones support shared inhabitation, balancing sociability with visual calm. The planning reflects a contemporary hospitality sensibility: not excess, but calibrated spatial generosity. This logic extends to accommodation, where expanded sleeping configurations respond to multigenerational living, offering layered privacy while maintaining cohesion.
Outdoors, the villa becomes more sculptural and experiential. Elevated platforms and recessed seating carve a subtle topography of inhabitation, shifting perception through height, enclosure, and horizon. A suspended seating element hovers toward the ocean line, while a sunken lounge anchors conversation in sheltered intimacy. A weather-responsive pavilion extends usability across shifting tropical conditions, embedding climate adaptability directly into the architectural language.
Materiality remains intentionally restrained, privileging texture, tactility, and tonal variation over ornament. Furnishings drawn from contemporary design sensibilities reinforce a language of understated refinement and spatial ease. A hand-carved screen inspired by coral morphologies introduces an ecological subtext, filtering light and sightlines while abstracting the reef beyond into form.
In the Landaa Estate Villa, design ultimately yields to its setting, framing, softening, and dissolving into the horizon it quietly inhabits.
Landaa Estate Villa, Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru
Address: Baa Atoll, Maldives
Website: www.fourseasons.com/maldiveslg/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FourSeasonsResortsMaldives
Instagram: www.instagram.com/fsmaldives/