Our design for the Potato Head Studios offers both private guestrooms and facilities, and public spaces to encourage exchange between different kinds of users.
– David Gianotten

OMA's first hotel in Bali has been designed both for guests and to engage the local community, with an open space for cultural events and leisure activities.

The open space, or platform, at Potato Head Studios runs from the hotel down to the beach at Seminyak and is based on the raised and ground-level courtyards of Indonesian and Balinese homes.

It provides a flexible stage where guests and locals can mingle to enjoy contemporary Balinese culture.

“At Desa Potato Head we’re not trying to change the industry, we want to create an entirely new model for it. If we bring people together for good times but offer them the unexpected, it will open their minds in new ways," explained Potato Head founder Ronald Akili.

"OMA is known for building public spaces, like museums and institutions, and that was our idea for the Desa: to create a type of cultural institution that mixes public with private, guests with locals, and future thinking with time-honoured craftsmanship."

The hotel also features a rooftop park that is open to the public, as well as restaurants, pools and a spa.

The building itself has a square layout and is constructed from a mix of open brickwork that allows for natural ventilation, timber cladding that provides shade and textured concrete interior walls.

David Gianotten, Managing Partner at OMA said: "The essence of Bali lies in interaction between different cultures. Our design for the Potato Head Studios offers both private guestrooms and facilities, and public spaces to encourage exchange between different kinds of users. It challenges the typical Balinese resort typology that highlights exclusivity."