Warapuru beach resort, Bahia

Brazil may be all the rage in the fashion and design worlds, but it’s almost impossible to find a hotel with impressive modern architecture and interiors. But this might start to change at the end of next year, when Portuguese hotelier João Vaz Guedes launches his sleek new beach resort Warapuru in Itacaré, southern Bahia.

Vaz Guedes found a Unesco World Heritage site, a secluded cove of Engenhoca, on a 30km stretch of Bahian coastline beneath mountainous terrain carpeted with virgin tropical rainforest. Then he commissioned Anouska Hempel and her team of architects, headed up by Australian Russell Jones, to create a hotel so glamorous it would resemble a Bond film.

After touching down on a private landing strip next to the hotel or flying into Ilhéus via Rio or São Paulo, guests will enter the compound through a vast hall built from white travertine. This is fronted by a black basalt reflection pool that acts as a roof for the huge reception area one floor down. The two reception desks are flanked by fireplaces with floating fires, signature features of The Hempel Hotel, set into the two supporting columns. The views of the cove 90m below, can be admired from a long bench that runs round the perimeter. Spa treatment rooms also look out to sea, and a central staircase accesses a restaurant, lounge, bars, reflection pools and a beach club. The 40 hotel rooms, in private cabanas or pavilions are built from local stone and timber, and range from 160-330sq m. Each has its own pool and sundeck, and guests have a choice of three fabulous, futuristic designs.

Twenty plots have been reserved for private villas. Each will be custom-built, taking one of three principal designs as a template, and will include three to six suites. Once a client has picked his hideaway, bespoke interiors and furniture will be chosen, the layout modified and a butler-in-residence recruited. Guests will have unrestricted access to the hotel’s facilities and there will be none of the usual logistics associated with owning a second home, as all services, maintenance and even sub-letting will be managed by the hotel.

[info=information]Warapuru, Itacaré, Brazil, [url=http://www.warapuru.com]www.warapuru.com[/url]; for villa enquiries [email=villas@warapuru.com]villas@warapuru.com[/email][/info] Guests will enter via a long hall that tops the the complex. A reflection pool forms the roof of the open-sided reception

24 June 2004 | Travel