Blog Posts By Author: Janice Li

Congratulations to the entire Shangri-La's Villingili Resort and Spa, Maldives team for winning the Award of Excellence at the 2011 AIA Honolulu Design Awards. Shangri-La Maldives took the top honor out of a field of nearly 40 entries.

Each winner was asked to do a presentation of their project in the Pecha Kucha style (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide). I was thrilled and honored to represent WATG and accept the award. (A copy of the presentation can be viewed here).

Some notable  facts about the project:

• The Tree House Villa is the first of its type to be introduced to the Maldives. No other resorts have villas that sit amongst the trees.
• Buildings were pre-fabricated off-site to minimize construction disturbance.
• Coral stones were used on all buildings.
• Each building was individually sited so that healthy trees and plants were left undisturbed.
• Each villa was positioned to ensure unobstructed ocean views.
• Villas built over the water on stilts were each sited based on an underwater survey to avoid damaging existing live coral.
• Existing lakes and jungles were conserved in their pre-construction condition to maintain the authenticity of the site. Trails were provided for guests to access these areas.
• Mock-ups were used throughout the design process to ensure the building design was appropriate to the site and met the high quality and functional requirements of Shangri-La.

Special thanks to Shangri-La for allowing us to work on this rewarding project, and to the entire team who contributed to the design of the resort.

I was fortunate to travel to Washington DC a few weeks ago for AIA's 2010 Grassroots Annual Leadership and Legislative Conference. I was there to represent the Pacific Northwest Region's Young Architects Forum (YAF), whose focus this year is to set up a mentoring program.

In addition to attending some great sessions and meeting with counterparts from across the nation, I also had the opportunity to meet three members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Senator Daniel Inouye, and Representatives Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono.

Unfortunately, we were caught in "snowmageddon," the biggest snowstorm to hit the nation's capital since 1922. Thousands were left without power, and all transportation in and out of the city came to a screeching halt.