The best design-led resorts

Whether your taste runs to zen-like simplicity or a healthy dose of grandeur, these seriously stylish retreats offer a design-driven way to escape the everyday.

Joali Maldives

From the moment the seaplane lands at the Joali Maldives’ manta ray-shaped wharf, you know that this is not just another Maldivian resort. Turkish design team, Autoban, has created overwater villas as mighty as cathedrals, with soaring ceilings and intricately carved wooden doors, and eye-catching restaurants such as Saoke, with its seductive geometric design. Providing a playful touch are the full-scale art pieces that double as sun loungers or even, in the case of an extraordinary woven sculpture by Cape Town artist Porky Hefer, a private dining pavilion floating high in the treetops.

Joali.com

The Lindis, New Zealand

Sometimes the best thing an architect can do is get out of the way. That’s exactly what the team behind the five-bedroom Lindis Lodge has done. Set in a sweeping glacial valley in the remote Southern Alps, the clever design of Lindis Lodge allows it to disappear into the landscape. Low ceilings and wide windows offer a sense of shelter from the elements while putting the landscape front and centre. The pièce de résistance is the lounge, with its soaring dome made of spotted gum and its imposing bluestone fireplace.

thelindisgroup.com

Shinta Mani Wild, Cambodia

Nothing about Shinta Mani Wild is predictable, from your arrival (through the treetops on a zipline) to the “tents” overlooking the river that are more luxurious than many hotel rooms. Designer Bill Bensley, the mastermind behind this wilderness retreat which doubles as a conservation project, has decked out each 100m² tent with vintage furnishings, a hand-carved bed and, on the expansive private deck, a photogenic roll-lipped tub. Guests are encouraged to take a deep dive into nature through activities such as orchid walks, kayaking trips and Japanese fly fishing.

shintamani.com

Bisate Lodge, Rwanda

The wild gorillas aren’t the only remarkable things hidden away in Rwanda’s forests. Perched along a wooded ridge line, Bisate’s six beehive-shaped pods, inspired by Rwandan royal architecture, have walls that curve up into the domed ceiling. Each villa is designed for cocooning with its king-size bed, volcanic stone fireplace — the perfect spot to curl up on a misty afternoon — and a huge bathroom with a freestanding black tub and a volcanic-stone shower.

wilderness-safaris.com

Tierra Atacama, Chile

Tierra Atacama sits in one of Chile’s most distinctive landscapes, a high-altitude desert so dry that scientists come here when they want to simulate the experience of being on Mars, and Tierra’s architects have created a lodge that could only belong to this landscape. Made with rammed earth and adobe walls, the interiors are filled with traditional artefacts from alpaca blankets to carvings made of pumice stone. The low-slung building is dominated by huge windows that frame the surrounding landscape, including the 6,000-metre-high Licancabur volcano.

tierrahotels.com

The Brando, Tahiti

A tropical resort should sit lightly on the land it inhabits, but that doesn’t limit your design options to palm thatching and latticework. The Brando — set on a private island formerly owned by Tahiti’s royal family, and later by Hollywood star Marlon Brando — keeps its footprint small thanks to its reliance on renewable energy, including its innovative water-powered air conditioning. That allows you to relax into your sleek villa with its contemporary stylings and its private beach and enjoy the guilt-free pleasures of a low-impact getaway.

thebrando.com

Saffire Freycinet, Tasmania

Overlooking one of Tasmania’s loveliest stretches of coast, Saffire Freycinet is a celebration of the Australian landscape. That applies not just to the views, framed through walls of windows, but also through the stone and wood used in the interiors and the organic forms of the architecture. The undulating roof of the main lodge has the flowing elegance of the ocean while each of the private suites is positioned like a wave washing up on the shore.

saffire-freycinet.com.au