The recent opening of Bali’s new lifestyle destination, the Samasta Village shopping and cultural complex – with Movenpick Resort and Spa at the centre of the development – has brought a new wave of tourist activity to laid-back Jimbaran. The location has a long history as a fishing village and the resort, while expansive, exhibits a sensitive response to its local history and surrounding context. Indonesian firm Hadiprana have celebrated the humble beginnings of the village within the resort’s spaces and through specially commissioned artworks.

Open, airy and distinctly contemporary in its overall aesthetic, Movenpick acknowledges its Jimbaran location in subtle but striking ways. Inspired by the lifestyle of the local fisherfolk, from the equipment used on a daily basis within the trade to the crafts that are a part of their daily lives, Hadiprana’s design takes cues from the vernacular. And in so doing, it unveils an updated reinterpretation of local references.

Allowing for a certain playfulness in scale and application, these design elements – such as the form of a wave in the carvings on lobby partitions and wall panels – appear through the public and private areas of the resort. These details tie the spaces together.

The subtle and overt references to nature weave a consistent design thread. Carefully curated materials and visual porosities create continuous connections with the landscape beyond the walls. The resort fully embraces the setting around it – from the dramatic promenade piercing through the lobby and framing the view out to the landscape and trellised structure beyond, to the ground-level restaurant Anarasa with floor-to-ceiling windows and a sheltered outdoor dining area, to slivers of greenery that make their way into the openings and voids that puncture the building’s mass at strategic locations.

Artworks and installations were commissioned out and produced in-house, and are positioned throughout the resort to reinforce the connection to nature and the local context of Jimbaran. A mix of custom installations from Hadiprana Artwork, furniture from product designer Alvin Tjitrowirjo, and handpicked paintings and statues by local painters and sculptors form an impressive collection that honours Balinese culture and celebrates contemporary Indonesian art as a whole.

According to the team at Hadiprana, “The selection and production of art installations was a well-thought process considering the theme, colours and the whole interior concept. Therefore, the artworks were selected not just for decoration but to give ‘soul’ to the whole resort area.”