Based in Bali, GFab was founded in 1999 by British architect Gary Fell. A graduate of and one-time teacher at University College in London, Fell’s career gained momentum when he and a team of friends were runners-up in a competition to design the Cardiff Opera House. The competition had attracted 2,500 entries, including some “superstars” of the architectural world. The recognition garnered from the prize helped Fell start his own business; not long after, he was operating out of Bali.

Graham Lamb, director of Gfab’s Bangkok office, says the firm is establishing itself in Bangkok for two main reasons.

“Firstly, having so many on-going projects in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and soon India too, we felt it was essential to have a presence in the northern region of Southeast Asia. This will enable us to have a more direct input in the development of projects here, thus giving us more control over the finish we achieve. The opening of the office also has geographical benefits and - it’s hoped - will reduce the travel demands on Gary. From here, we’ll more easily be able to address site issues with a visit. This will increase the firm’s creative output by allowing Gary to spend more time producing architectural designs with the Bali team.”

Though based in Bali, Fell and his team (now numbering around 30) have done much more work outside the island than on it. Gfab’s first few jobs were a series of residential projects in Melbourne that made clever use of limited urban space. In Cambodia, the firm’s developments have been decidedly bigger. They include the Foreign Correspondent’s Club (FCC Angkor) and the Four Points by Sheraton in Siem Reap as well as an international primary school, the I-CAN School, in Phnom Penh.

“Cambodia is a very exciting market for us right now,” says Graham. “We have more FCC developments or extensions underway in Phnom Penh, Kep and Sihanoukville on the south coast and we also have a couple of condominium tower developments in the high-end areas of central Phnom Penh.”

FCC Angkor, with 33 rooms, is now a hotel first and a journalists’ watering hole second and was recently included in Loft Publication’s New Hotels 3. The coffee-table design book highlights the FCC’s “harmony and sophistication”, saying the ambience of the hotel and its black slate pool bring to mind the nearby Angkor temples.

In Thailand, Gfab’s best known work is the Samujana Villas on Koh Samui. Along with designing the development’s 26, 600+sqm villas and the shared buildings and facilities, Gfab also drew up the master plan for the site itself, which is located above a beachfront with a magnificent view of the island’s northeast. Each of the villas will be unique as the plots were laid out to correspond with the topographical conditions of the site and the structures are being designed to accommodate the individual wants and needs of each owner. By incorporating geographical conditions at both the planning and design stages, the architects have been able to retain and deftly integrate outcrops of natural rock found throughout the site.

It was during construction of the Samujana Villas that Gfab encountered a legal restriction identical to one that had impeded its work in Bali.

“The implementation of the law requiring pitched roofs in Koh Samui unfortunately happened during construction of the Samujana project. Due to certain developments on Samui, the local authority decided that the flat roofs were unsightly and did not hold the essence of Thai architecture. In the work we do, we use roof areas to add functional spaces such as sun terraces, gardens and reflecting pools. Such design actually brings a unity between the land and the building, whilst the visual benefits to other houses in a development are enormous. For a house at the rear of a development, a flat roof will ensure that their views are retained; the roof actually becomes a feature or landscape in itself, blending a patchwork effect of plantations, water and natural materials from around the site.

“The enforcement of the regulations now makes the design process a little different. Aqualina on Koh Samui is a perfect example of how we can adapt our design principles and bring an alternative solution to the table.”

The Aqualina development is comprised of 18 striking two- and three-bedroom villas facing Koh Phangan on the north of Koh Samui. To conform to the new planning laws, Gfab, who are “masterplanners” for the development and are also designing the landscapes and interiors, have created triangular villas with pitched roofs that extend all the way to the floor. Greening the roofs are planters irrigated by a system capable of recycling water.

Other ongoing local developments designed by Gfab are the Mangosteen Suites and neighbouring Mangosteen Villas in Phuket as well as Samui’s Napa Villas. In accordance with Gfab’s operating principles, the Mangosteen Suites were designed to correspond, rather than compete, with the surrounding environment. Its flat roof embedded with pools and planting areas is not only visually appealing but also reduces internal temperatures whilst the buildings themselves were dug heavily into the site and the excavated material used for wall cladding.

Such environmental considerations are incorporated in all of Gfab’s work. Their company bio states: “We strongly believe that a building should be intimately linked to its site (aesthetically and materially) and be as energy efficient as possible.” It goes on to specify that this is not some “tree-hugger/post-hippy position” but an ethic that is vitally significant in today’s world.

As most of their developments are in Southeast Asia, environmental considerations are largely about minimising the need for mechanical cooling, ie., aircon. This is done through techniques such as allowing for natural ventilation, deep cutting and the partial burying of buildings, and the above-mentioned rooftop pools and gardens to reflect and absorb heat. Alongside these, Gfab often employs long-established methods such as heavy stone walls and evaporative courtyard pools.

These techniques are employed liberally in two of Gfab’s Balinese projects, the Angsana Resort and Wabi Villas. Built around one of the brand’s famous spas on the southern tip of Bali, the Angsana Resort will feature 31 two-bedroom apartments and 31 villas overlooking a private beach. Except for six speciality dwellings that will be dug into the hillside, the villas have been constructed in tiers three deep with picturesque roofs of reflecting pools and planters.

The Wabi development, meanwhile, is made up of nine villas, a conference facility, restaurant and bar. The villas are semi-buried, with the rock quarried from the site used in the villas’ thick stone walls. The buildings’ roofs are implanted with garden beds and lotus pools and, to expand on space, each roof serves as an extension to the garden of the villa above.

The Wabi development also exemplifies Gfab’s modern but unobtrusive style. Rather than using the usual “cookie-cutter” subdivision, the plots and the placement of the structures thereon have been formed in accordance with the contours of the land, giving each a unique shape and increasing usable space. Utilisation of rock taken from the site and the abundant native greenery both on and around the buildings further harmonises the villas and their environment.

“The use of local materials to blend the villas into the landscape works well and brings a unique experience to the space, a feeling of integration into nature,” says Graham.

Aesthetically and pragmatically aligned to their surroundings, Gfab’s creations are still stylish, elegant and, ultimately, luxurious. The firm takes a holistic approach to its projects, usually designing not just the architecture but also interiors, landscapes, lighting and even furniture. Putting it simply, Gfab’s work results in some extremely attractive spaces.

Regarding the firm’s future – and his role in it – Graham is enthusiastic and upbeat.

“It’s a very exciting time for Gfab. The projects that are now offered to us are generally of a very interesting nature. People approach Gfab because they know what level of design to expect and are usually looking for the lifestyle that our architecture seems to embrace. Internally, we are developing our capabilities, adding the interior architecture department which will help us keep our focus on the smaller details of a project even though the projects are getting larger. The newer projects that are on the drawing board at present show a developing design language; and the energy that is present when we’re consistently trying to produce something new whilst working with clients’ demands is extremely positive.

“Watch this space, I guess.”

Southern Surprise
By Nick Anthony, Indigo Real Estate

Firstly a confession: I am well known as a crazy traveller and have scoured the world numerous times in search of holy grails and the ‘new new thing’, but being a Surin beach-based guy and preferring an old army jeep over more modern and efficient means of transportation I travel to the south of Phuket as infrequently as possible.

Yes, it has also been a bias, but I now publicly admit that I have overlooked some very positive developments that have swayed my now positive views. Historically (1980s) getting south of Phuket was pretty arduous; the roads were awful and it became a hotel and holiday destination with few international residents. Fast forward to the 1990s and Kata/Karon boomed with hotels and international holiday-makers. Swarms of restaurants and bars sprang up with all of the associated service businesses and the area boomed.

New roads were cut through the island’s core making travel times quicker and with it more residents moved in. Most hotels were decent 3-4 star establishments with a few old 5-star favourites like The Boathouse, Mon Tri’s and Le Meridien.

Fast forward into early this decade and enter ‘Katamanda’, which set about reversing this trend with quality and design targeting higher end clientele and fed off the success of hoteliers like neighbouring ‘The Boathouse’ that brought in high spending expats and the Hong Kong crowd. Katamanda also was a pioneer in selling luxury residences and launched at a time when there were virtually no west coast residential estates. Today a new trend is quickly emerging and has the potential to rapidly change the nature of the South of Phuket - Kata, Karon, Rawai and Cape Panwa - in just a few years. It’s moving upmarket.

A new four-lane highway through the island’s middle is well underway easing the bottlenecks around the Central department store; seaplanes, choppers and boats all now ply the area; and there are a number of new 5-star hotels either planned, built or under construction, including The Conrad, The Four Seasons, The Taj Exotica, The Mangosteen and Cape Panwa. With this activity it’s no surprise that high quality estates have recently been launched and show many of the winning attributes that have driven house prices on the upper west coast: good design, professional building teams, well-capitalized developers and a range of resort facilities and hotel management, making owning a beach house much more hassle free (and also a return driven investment).

The Mangosteen Suites, 22 ultra modern beach chic apartments by Bali-based Gary Fell, are just being launched and offer sensational ocean views, good prices and an excellent operator coupled with a resort that is already operational and doing well. With a guaranteed yield of up to 7 per cent for the first two years taking the guessing game out of the start-up phase and existing hotel numbers these suites are prime investment properties and will do well.

The Crowne Residences have sold well as they are also well managed and across from the beach. These too are attractive investment properties.

Listed Bangkok developer Raimon Land have set the area alight with heavy marketing, hot design and stunning views with the apartment project the The Heights. Here designer Hans Brouer - who was a Norman Foster protégé - takes living on the edge, to the edge.

Kata Gardens was Raimon’s first project in Kata and is almost sold out and completed in about a year, a solid accomplishment and a salute to Raimon’s first-class management team (and marketing budget!).

Around the corner with elegant eagle’s nest ocean views is Cape Panwa, a nearly completed luxury estate with 3-5 bedroom residences, one bedroom pool villas and a small boutique hotel, with prices attained in excess of US$2 million and large tropical home architecture. These sold quickly off plan. Lastly Tamarind is an exclusive value-for-money oceanfront estate that has a beautiful east coast aspect.

“Go south young man” used to be wise words spoken as solid advice and foresight, and these days in Phuket it’s nice to have new choices and will ensure that the upper west coast boys are kept on their toes with nimble, design savvy and concierge-minded estates.