The Balé — Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The sweep of monumental temples at Angkor has meant that Siem Reap has always attracted the lion’s share of Cambodia’s high-end luxury accommodation. The arrival of the Lifestyle Retreats group in the country’s capital is therefore timely given Phnom Penh’s more varied attractions.
Cosseted by spider lilies, a sacred Bodhi tree, thick jungle foliage and a traditional Khmer village, the 18 all-suite Balé is a striking modernist compound on the edge of the fabled Mekong River. Its silhouette of red and pink Palimanan sandstone was conceived by Jakarta-based firm Sidarta Sanjaya and Associates as a sequence of long rectilinear corridors and footbridges that slash through white pavilions and internal courtyards landscaped with frangipani and lemongrass.
A 30m lap-pool lined in blue tiles parallels the river’s edge, and is flanked by a bijou dining room in which chef Anton Ventslav experiments with a seasonal Cambodian menu lightly touched with Mediterranean influences.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
Road 6A
Bridge No. 8
Bah Keng
Phnom Penh
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
-
Home is where Beethoven Market is – a joyful Italian restaurant in LA’s Mar Vista
In Mar Vista, a historic space is reborn as a modern-day gathering spot, an Italian-infused restaurant where rotisserie chicken, handmade pasta and tableside tiramisu welcome you like family
-
This Canadian house is a precise domestic composition perched on the Nova Scotian coast
Bishop McDowell completed a new Canadian house overlooking the Atlantic, using minimal details and traditional forms to create a refined family home
-
‘With a small gesture of buying a postcard, we all become copyists’: the Louvre’s celebration of copying speaks to human nature
Contemporary artists are invited to copy works from the Louvre in a celebration of the copyist’s art, a collaboration with Centre Pompidou-Metz
-
Villa One at the One & Only Palmilla — Los Cabos, Mexico
-
Martim — Wroclaw, Poland
-
Tattersalls Hotel — Armidale, Australia
-
KLoé Hotel — Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-
Casa Hoyos — San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
-
Littlenap — Hangzhou, China
-
Casa Santa Teresa — Corsica, France
-
Swedish studio Claesson Koivisto Rune designs K5, a new hotel in Tokyo
Step inside Claesson Koivisto Rune’s design as a 1920s bank turns hotel