The 5* Datai Langkawi Hotel is located on the northwestern tip of the island of Langkawi off the coast of Malaysia. Built in 1993 between Datai Bay on one side and a tropical forest on the other, this 37,000 m² project was signed by the Australian architect Kerry Hill and the French architect Didier Lefort. 25 years later, the latter carried out the renovation and expansion of the structure. A budget of 55 million euros. Release.

In 1993, the Australian architect Kerry Hill summoned the French designer Didier Lefort, founder of the Parisian firm DL2.A (Didier Lefort Architectes Associés), to work with him on the construction of a 5* luxury hotel in Langkawi, an island in the north of Malaysia, in a ten-million-year-old forest, on the edge of the Andaman Sea, opposite the first islands of Thailand.

The idea of ​​building a hotel in the heart of the tropical jungle is received with perplexity because then there are only beach hotels and a luxury hotel has never been built in the middle of the jungle. But the contracting authority and the two project managers are determined to preserve both the pristine beauty of the beach and the rainforest, even if it means being greeted somewhat coldly by the monkeys during their first forays into the slash-and-slash.

After three years of work, the hotel was built in the heart of the forest, 300 m from the coast and 40 m from sea level, thus creating the first eco-luxury hotel in Malaysia.

Together, the two architects drafted a project aimed at ensuring the construction of the hotel complex without major changes to the landscape with Malay-inspired architecture. The wood was obtained using trees felled by elephants, eliminating the need for heavy machinery. These felled trees were replaced by newly planted trees.

” Other than a golf course under construction a few miles away, there was nothing, just jungle, not even a road. “, explains Didier Lefort. “We had to clear the land, move the wooden logs to the location of the main body to use them, among other things, for the construction of the poles of the Beach Club restaurant and the piles of the Le Pavillon restaurant, suspended 25 m above the canopy. he says.

The hotel offers the privilege of a central pool, like a mirror of emerald water in the middle of the jungle. A grand zig-zag staircase leads to the spa and to the villas, which number over a hundred keys.

Twenty-five years later, Arnaud Girodon, the hotel’s French General Manager, once again called on Didier Lefort to restore the structure, rediscovering the original soul of the Datai Langkawi, which had faded over time.

” It was essential to maintain a link with the vision of a luxurious retreat in the heart of the virgin forest. A mixture of simplicity, modernity and creativity that already drew the guidelines of the project thirty years ago, which, inspired by the environment, culture and local materials, are still valid. », explains the architect.

The interiors have been embellished with more modern materials, new lighting, a color palette with warm and sophisticated tones, to which is added the comfort of new technologies, obviously maintaining the imprint of the original DNA.

Beyond the restructuring of the rooms, suites and ‘Rainforest Villa’, the program also included a new spa, a ‘Datai Villa’, a second swimming pool, a ‘Nature Center’ built with bamboo, a ‘fitness’, meeting rooms and many other facilities.

For this extraordinary achievement, DL2.A and Kerry Hill were awarded the 2001 “Aga Khan Award for Architecture”. The renovation won the 2019 Versailles Award, which honors outstanding architecture and design.