What is in a name? When it comes to aman, enough. Known for her obsessive attention to details, Aman rarely leaves nothing by chance, at least all of her nomenclature. Since its first resort, Amanpuri (Sanskrit for the “Place of Peace”), opened on the Thai Island of Phuket in 1988, every tourist name has evoked the country and peace. Amanruya in Turkey translates into “peaceful dream”, the amnenee of marrachesh means “peaceful paradise”.
Aman Nai Lert Bangkok, who opens tomorrow in the heart of the Thai capital, holds not only one location but one appointment: the man whose family owns the land for generations. The legacy of Lert Sreshtaputra, better known as Nai Lert, Thai, whose centuries -old house still stands next door.
For decades, one-story one-story and the surrounding park Nai Lert have been a green abnormality in the big business district of Bangkok-a pocket of the calm NAI of Nai Lert, Naphape “Lek” Bodiratnanga, is the current leader. Her grandfather formed most of the modern Bangkok, introducing the first ice business, public transport systems and the first luxury hotel Thai, Hotel de la Paix, located in the highest tower of the city at the time. His daughter and the only heir, Thanpuying Lursakdi Sampatisiri, opened the country’s first hotel Hilton before becoming the first female (transport) female minister.
Often called Thailand’s response to Paris Hilton (though with a fireworks personality), Bodiratnangkua won a UK hotel management diploma, studied fashion in Parsons, and was a match in the Global Party County before settlement in her 30s. “Before my grandmother left this land, she told me to keep the soul of Nai Lert’s park alive,” she says.
Bodiratnangle has since turned her grandmother’s house into a museum and oversees the opening of a catering business, Butler school and the Culinary Academy in collaboration with Alain Ducasse. A range of cafes and restaurants are opened around the leafy bases. However, for all its history, family land lacked one thing. “I told my mom,” (a hotel) was the last part in the system, “she recalls. Answer: “Go find a brand that suits us.”
Bodiratnangura already knew the answer, in the form of CEO of Aman Vladislav Doroni. “When we met, our common commitment to extraordinary architecture, design and craftsmanship was noticeable,” he says. “It is a full -rounded moment to open an urban hotel in the place that was the home of the first aman.”
About six years and some of the later open opening dates, the result of that rapid fire agreement rises 36 stories on ancient park trees. Built on the largest seismic standards of art, it was not influenced by the felt vibrations in Bangkok after the earthquake in Myanmar. Designed by Jean-Michel Gathy, a tall Aman associate, the hotel pays homage to Nai Lert Park and the family home that Gathy and his team studied extensively for months. Gathy’s signature palette offers minimalist lines, and silent colors are divided with nodes on the influence of Nai Lert. Bronze light fixtures in the ninth lobe bar resemble bark pieces from park -toucheding trees, while stacked flooring patterns around the reception table echo the flooring floor tables Nai Lert. More visible references include floor panels to ceiling that hold Sampatisir’s fingerprints, and the NAI Lert company logo, designed by the founder himself, embedded in a work of art in 1872, the hotel lobby.
The center of the lobby, a life -sized tree sculpture, inspired by the bronzes of Alberto Giacometti, emerges from the ceiling as a tribute to the centuries -old Chamchuri trees that grow outside. Bodiratnangkura modified the architectural plans to avoid the demolition of the upper branches of an older centuries-old tree (they now last through an opening in the 9th floor pool). “I had to get insurance (for the tree) during construction,” says Bodiratnangkura. “The contractor was like,” *** …! “But I can’t move these trees.
The floor plans of the 52 visitors’ suits are very large and, with a smaller awarded to a high 92 mq, among the largest. They are equipped with daytime leather beds with butter spread around different nicknames of the seats, and open to some of the most clumsy baths in the city. They are also the most precious, with rates starting from about $ 1,100 per night (and significantly more over the busiest periods). They come with a long list of snake, including fast service and limousine receiving from the airport, access to 1,500 mq Aman Spa and Wellness Center, and well -equipped minibars.
For dining, Sessui, an eight-seat Omekase counter, and Hiior, a Tepeyaki theater land that lands only 14 guests, are both located on the 19th floor. In the latter, Chef Yoji Kitayama brings a personal touch to enjoy the home -made soy sauce menus, modern sakras and beef melted from his hometown in Nagano. They join Arva, the Italian eating place of the signature of Aman, and 1872, a bar called the year of birth of Nai Lert, where they pour the infected martyrs with a miniature 3D copy of his old water reservoir. The upper ephelons of the hotel also have Aman Lounge and a leather -decorated living room that, along with the two Japanese restaurants, form an enclave only for members that is increasingly an integral part of the aman experience. If you are not standing on a guest or a resident, it is yours to enjoy for BT2MN (about $ 60,000) – a relative shopping compared to the $ 200,000 starting fee that Aman Club in New York commands.
My only flu: the appearance, which cannot compete with some of her five -star Bangkok peers. My windows crossing the suite suite wall looked at the tent of Nai Lert Park, but also on an empty building and in the living rooms of the buildings around the hotel. Fortunately, clean blinds descend with a slide in the bed of the bed that controls everything, from mood to temperature. Better views, perhaps, are reserved for Aman’s home tenants, whose apartments occupy the 17 floors of the building.
But Aman Nai Lert Bangkok aspires to be more than a high -specific vanity project. Bodiratnangkura’s gentle persistence that her ancestor deserved a place on the name plaque speaks of a broader conversation about heritage and reinventing. After all, the words that closed the Doronin Agreement were as poetic as they were crucial: “I want to make history with you,” he told her. Let’s see if they can.
Out of US $ 1,100, aman.com. The hotel will donate some of the revenue from any April stay for charity that help those who need the earthquake consequence
