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More Green Details on WOHA Design’s Alila Villas

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Perched on top of dramatic limestone cliffs sweeping down to the ocean, the view from the Alila Villas Uluwatu is nothing less than glorious, a perfect site for a resort, but WOHA Design and Alila Hotels were also intent on creating a luxury resort without disturbing the local ecology.

So for that reason, the site chosen was actually in a rather dry and stony savannah region, where few trees would be disturbed. Not the typical resort location, yet on a clifftop plateau along the southern coastline of Bali on the Bukit Peninsula.

More details have surfaced from GreenSource Building since we covered WOHA Design’s prizewinning eco resort last year. New photos as well.

For example, extensive use was made of crushed limestone waste produced locally. This cool and smooth stone moderates energy use indoors at the entrance to the serene resort.

Local artisans both in Bali and neighboring Java were employed to make the polished cement tiles in nearby workshops, bringing much needed jobs to an impoverished area. All the furniture was custom built in Java using local timber and copper.

As well as the waste crushed limestone, some of the other sustainable locally sourced materials include locally sourced cladding of white sandstone (batu putih pogya), recycled ulin timber, unpolished terrazzo, porous lava rocks, oxidised brass and tempered glass.

One example is this innovative use of locally harvested volcanic pumice rock on the roofs of the villas.

The pumice roof not only makes a familiar growing medium for native ferns and succulents to thrive in the porous and water-absorbing volcanic rock but also provides natural insulation for the creatures sleeping underneath.

Green energy is supplied using biodiesel generators powered by organic waste from the resort, and it will eventually buy electricity generated from wind farms on the peninsula.

And, as these new images show, it’s still gorgeous too.