A few years ago, one of my first post was about storytelling.. in fact I phrased it as such. “ the art of crafting the guest journey. Engaging their imagination. Connecting with them on an emotional level. Creating the Sense of Place. This is the key ingredient to a destination.”
Our founder Pete was credited as stating that the most successful destination will be the one that makes the emotional connection with the guests. We centered our practice on creating a sense of place in our designs.
We first created the story that the guest will be told. The story of the destination that will drive the guest to make the emotional connections. While we may have described this as finding the “Kodak” moments and later morphed into Instagram moments in a destination. It was more than memorable views it became immersive and experiential (i.e., a slide through a shark tank).
At the resort we designed in Bali, we looked for ways to honor the culture, art,and craft of the location. We wanted to give the guest the quintessential experience of being in Bali.
I visited Sri Lanka to see a site for a competition. We studied the designs of Geoffrey Bawa to attempt to understand the design influences in Sri Lanka. Our design studied how indigenous design reacted to the environment. Then we focused on how to be immersive to the environment with in this code. Find the unique feature that will wow the market.
The goal….
Create the story that crafts the guest journey and experience. Let the story drive the design and make the emotional connection to the guest. Thus Storytelling is the key to placemaking and creating the sense of place that will driving the guest to return and to “market” the resort via word of mouth in the story that they retell to their friends.
Destination Architect 