A new wave of Indonesian hotels is embracing location-driven, contextually appropriate design that harmonises with the climate and landscape. These retreats look to the past and future but mostly to their surroundings for inspiration, celebrating art, craft, and cuisine to connect with globally minded travellers seeking cultural and natural immersion.
Cap Karoso, Sumba
With craft and culture woven into its very fabric, Cap Karoso is a bridge between worlds that brings ancient Sumbanese customs into a luxury hospitality context.
A long period of reflection preceded the actual construction process. Owners Eve and Fabrice Ivara considered how the design would inscribe onto the landscape while respecting and maintaining the island’s wildness. The vision was always that references should never be too literal: they didn’t want to reproduce a local village but rather create a homage.
Eve and Fabrice’s goal with Cap Karoso was to immerse people in the culture—its richness, complexity, and uniqueness. As Eve explains, East Indonesia is relatively unexplored by tourists and vastly different from a destination like Bali in terms of lifestyle and religion.
The final design interpreted elements of the local architecture and landscape in a modern and personal way. Travertine blocks echo the megalithic stones on the island, while the shape of the roofs is a nod to the local vernacular without pretending to be purely Sumbanese.
Likewise, the various craft and design elements were created in collaboration with Cap Karoso and honour rather than replicate. Not only were local craftspeople (from Balinese wood carvers to weavers from Sumba) commissioned to create pieces throughout the property, but artists and visiting artisans regularly visit to share their ancestral crafts, often combining their skills to co-create. It’s a space where guests can explore and are inspired to learn.
This sense of connection—the respect for culture and a shared appreciation for the island’s spirit—is the golden thread. You can see this in all aspects, even in the simple act of looking out to sea at sunset, where fishermen on their traditional boats bob alongside guests on kayaks in the waves.
Further, Pererenan
On Bali’s southwest coast, Further’s award-winning design manages to blend into the surrounding village of Pererenan while simultaneously standing out.
This was the goal from the outset. Designed by MORQ with interiors by Studio Wenden, Further’s ‘outside looking in’ approach incorporated sympathetic elements of local architecture and a typically Balinese palette while becoming a recognisable landmark. Its symbiotic relationship with context is not only skin-deep but built into the building’s structure. Passive cooling via an artful use of airbricks counters humidity and filters light throughout the day.
Further is not only locally inspired but locally crafted. Every brick was made by hand in Tabanan, walls hand-rendered, furniture custom designed, and artwork sourced by local creatives. These elements are filtered through a contemporary lens, however, giving it a sleek, no-frills minimalism that doesn’t read as ‘crafty’ but rather as current. By merging local motifs and acknowledging the natural (and immediate) environment, it feels local and international, new and established.
Like the design, the cuisine and programming take local inspiration and influences and interpret them in a modern way to provide an authentic Balinese experience that connects guests to the local community and landscape while recognising the multifaceted nature of the location.
Innit, Lombok
If Robinson Crusoe had been a minimalist, his beach hideaway could have looked something like Innit Lombok. A true castaway retreat in a remote location on the secluded white-sand shores of Ekas Bay, a key aspect of its design was to keep the surrounding landscape as untouched as possible with as little impact made on the community who has lived in this area for generations.
This intention has shaped the architectural language to such an extent that the elements quite literally merge with the buildings, with beach sand making up the floors of the Beach Houses. Only limited natural and raw materials, such as concrete, wood, glass and Lombok stone (all sourced locally or within Indonesia) were used, and landscaping was sensitively done around the existing wild plants.
Described as ‘analogue’ by founder Michal Tyles, Innit centres on simple pleasures, all cued by nature – the sound of the ocean, the feel of sand under your feet, and fresh food. Pressing pause is the goal.
It’s not only the design that draws on the beauty of the surrounding island. Food is made using vegetables and fruit bought from local farmers or grown on-site (mango, rambutan, papaya, longan, coconuts), and local fishermen supply their daily catch. The landscape informs all activities, too, in the form of surfing, kitesurfing, kayaking, and picnics on Pulau Pasir (sandy island), which is about 15 minutes by boat and only accessible during low tide.
