Design
Harding Boutique Hotel Ahangama offers a unique combination of design, intimacy, and contextualism that captures a new, modern movement in Sri Lankan hospitality. It is created by those who truly believe in offering an international destination rooted in local culture and set within an inspiring piece of modern architecture and interiors. The property’s architecture and interiors are inspired by Sri Lanka’s vernacular modernist movement and are designed by British architect Jonathan Ashmore, founder of the award-winning design and architecture practice; ANARCHITECT, based in Dubai and London.
“Private balconies with views of the Indian Ocean will be accompanied by sea-facing baths, rain showers and king beds, surrounded by palm groves.”
Evening Standard – Read More
Paul Harding and Jonathan Ashmore connected through a shared admiration for Sri Lanka – its rich landscape, cultural diversity, and natural hospitality. Harding’s entrepreneurial vision and ANARCHITECT’s international expertise, contextual approach to design and focus on craft and materiality created a unique synergy, resulting in an outstanding new boutique travel destination for Sri Lanka’s southern province and a unique nod to Tropical Modernism.
The new property lies amongst dense coconut groves to the East and West, ocean and beach frontage to the South and a dynamic local community to the North. It is visually calm amongst the organic and wild nature that surrounds it and contextual and environmentally responsive through its materiality and natural openness and permeability. Materials used throughout the hotel include local hard-wood, polished concrete and granite stone in local Sri Lankan detail.
The hotel features well ventilated, wide, open spaces – suites with generous private balconies and uninterrupted views over the Indian Ocean, sea-facing private baths, rain showers, double vanities and king beds wrapped in luxurious Egyptian cotton linens. The rooms are elevated amongst the natural palm groves, seamlessly connected with their surroundings of the breath-taking ocean views and tropical landscape.
The roof terrace and the staircase leading onto it, wrapped in lush foliage, are the hotel’s key architectural features, defining the building and creating a deeper connection to the ocean. The exclusive nature and boutique scale of the hotel inspired ANARCHITECT to create hidden away moments such as intimate seated nooks on the mid-landings of the central open-staircase. These spaces are both contemplative and social, organically inhabited by guests and visitors at their own leisure as they ascend towards the open-air roof terrace with its three-hundred and sixty-degree views over the palm tops.
Harding Boutique Hotel sets an unparalleled benchmark for Sri Lanka’s hospitality sector. It brings a unique piece of contextual modern design to the south coast of the country, footsteps away from the country’s world-famous surf break and pristine beaches, and a thirty-minute drive from the UNESCO World Heritage Site Galle Fort.