Alila Hinu Bay

The resort had been designed by a prior architect and partial excavation was already in place when we were commissioned to redesign the project under a new brief for the same operator. The challenge was to honour the Alila brand while salvaging the site works already built, working to a set budget, and aligning the new setting-out to the excavated reality.

• Existing excavation on a remote coastal site: the redesigned resort had to fit the ground already shaped, not the other way around.
• A fixed budget from concept through tender, with a design-fee incentive tied to achieving a construction cost below the design estimate.
• Hyatt/Alila brand standards applied to every guest touchpoint — non-negotiable and audited by the operator.
• Thin local supply chain and a small specialist contractor pool on a site hours from Salalah, leaving little room for late-stage improvisation.

• Replanned the resort setting-out to match the excavated site, keeping the operator's area and adjacency requirements intact.
• Set and tracked budgets from concept through to tender, using specification adjustments, construction-method changes and modular thinking to bring the cost in line.
• Held a single decision log across client, operator and consultants so every substitution was assessed against brand standard, guest experience and budget.
• Front-loaded mock-ups and material approvals so remote-site lead times were absorbed by the programme rather than the site.

Cost was not just controlled — it was optimised to win a design-fee incentive. Savings were taken where the guest would never feel them, by rethinking specifications, construction methods and modularity, while protecting the Alila guest experience. The incentive earned was close to the original design fee, and the project remained tenderable and buildable within the operator's standard.

Delivered as a 111-key, 19,000 sqm Alila resort to brand standard. The project won the fee incentive through design-led cost control and was recognised after opening, including the Identity Magazine award in the Hotel category.

Studio Director – design. I directed the redesign output and operator interface; the wider multi-disciplinary consultant team, contractor and operator technical services team delivered against it.