Four Seasons Langkawi: Malaysian Mystique

This aerial view of the Karawaci residence highlights its dramatic contemporary Thai-inspired roofscape. The pointed-roof entrance and formal living room in the foreground are linked with the octagonal formal dining room by a covered walkway. The owner’s office is on the ground floor below the dining room, while the master bedroom, children’s rooms and family dining room are to the left of the octagonal dining room.

Comfortable sofas and armchairs interspersed with decorative artifacts from around the region characterize the decor in the owner’s study-cum-office. A striped table runner adds contrast to the manly monotones, while bracts of bright red “lobster claw” heliconias add splashes of color.

Decorative pink pebbles, an antique statue of the Hindu god Shiva lit by background “fire,

” slim hanging lights and lush green plants combine to form a tactile and visual delight at the entrance to the formal living room.

Although designed to seat six people at most, the Thai-style living room is both spacious and spectacular. Four huge lanterns, inspired by northern Thai white paper hot air festival balloons (komloi), hang from the lofty, pointed ceiling, seemingly flying through the sky. The top of the monolithic coffee table is made of long pieces of mother-of-pearl placed on a translucent background. Resting on top is a beautiful low silver table holding a collection of silver ceremonial containers in different shapes and sizes. Over the seven years that we worked on this home, I collected these highly decorative containers from Tibet, Chiang Mai, Bhutan, Cambodia and India. Underneath the table are four lights that give the illusion that the table is floating. In actual fact, it is guarded by four huge, cast aluminum side tables with miniature versions on top in the form of hurricane lamps. Niches inset into the wall of the living room are perfect backdrops for some freestanding wooden Thai statues from the Jim Thompson collection which the client obtained when he lived in Thailand in the 1960s. Also in this room are two ornate chairs made in Bali from mahogany inlaid with buffalo bone, with ornate lions at the ends of the armrests. A covered walkway connects the living room to a large octagonal dining pavilion. To add interest to the walkway, we installed 24 niches, and for each commissioned Balinese artists to render different episodes of the ancient Hindu epic, the Ramayana, as it would be told in 24 different parts of Asia, from India to Burma to the Philippines. (The Ramayana, which tells the story of a Hindu prince, Rama of Ayodhya, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of

Lanka, Ravana, is one of the most important literary works on ancient India, and has had a profound impact on art and culture in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.) The dining room, furnished entirely with items designed in our studios and custom-made— from the dining table down to the plateware—is dominated by a spectacular chandelier crafted by an old friend, John Underwood. In our design for the chandelier, we employed the ubiquitous Thai kanok, a vegetal motif with a flame-like contour, and woven faux rhino skin. In the center of the 12-seater table is a huge lazy Susan. The silk-slashed dining chair covers were astronomically expensive. Even the Dutch-inspired plates were designed by us—and individualized with six different logo prints and an inscription.

Inspired by palatial Indian furniture, we had this inlaid bone chair made in Bali.

The lofty, pointed ceiling of the formal living room is accentuated by “floating” kamloi-style lighting fixtures, custom-made in Java.

Another view of the owner’s office, which is set at ground level with the other buildings on the estate built up around it. Manly leathers and rich woods complement the room’s strong lines.

A novelty feature in the powder room of the formal living pavilion is a vanity counter and solid marble basin suspended like a swing. A flexible drain pipe allows the unit to move a few inches.