Peter Mueller is the architect of dream resorts

By Dini Djalal

MEDANA BAY, Lombok (JP): When Peter Mueller, who built Bali's legendary resorts The Oberoi and The Amandari, is asked about his influence on hotel style in Indonesia, his reply is plain and simple.

"I'm just an architect," said Mueller. "If somebody asks me to design a hospital, I'll do it."

Humble words for a man whom many in the tourism and resort industry credit for helping raise Bali's reputation as a first- class destination.

It all started in 1973, with Mueller's first creation in Bali; a small bungalow-style hotel on Seminyak Beach called the Kayu Aya. When Mueller returned to Australia in 1974, the hotel fell, literally, to pieces, and it wasn't until 1978, when the Oberoi Group asked him to restore the Kayu Aya, that the famed Oberoi Bali came into being.

Twenty years later, renovations intended to perfect every detail of this secluded five-star resort are nearing completion. But its style, shaped by Mueller, has set the standard of what was to be the most copied style of hotel architecture. Tourists take for granted the garden bathrooms and villas' open-air bales overlooking private swimming pools which characterize Bali's luxury resorts, but Mueller's vision was startling in 1974.

Yet Mueller's now-famous standard was itself a copy, an obeisance to the traditional Balinese architecture he so admired. The walled compound design one finds today in luxury resorts is derivative of a typical Balinese village, with its walled streets and village square, complete with a marketplace, community pavilion and Kul-Kul tower. As Mueller explains it, "My idea was to re-construct a Balinese village".

The world can now enjoy Mueller's manifestation of his vision, but Mueller says he has had to be very patient in the creation process. "It's a 27-year-old idea. It's not new," he said.

After all, Mueller first came to Bali in 1970 when much of the island was still an anthropologist's dream: no electricity, no motorbikes, no telephones. "It was so romantic, so simple. I fell in love with Bali immediately and admired everything about it, its culture, its music and theater, its village life, its architecture," said Mueller. It's this admiration for Bali's traditional ways which inspired his work.

"I wanted to show how traditional technology can be adapted to create modern buildings. I wanted to prove that you don't have to import outside technology when traditional technology already works," he said.

His chance of proving this arrived when one of the owners of Sanur Beach's Tanjung Sari Hotel asked him to build a small hotel "distinctly different" than the multi-storied cement block Bali Beach Hotel. The Tanjung Sari, staffed and built almost entirely with local skills and materials, was already an inspiration, evidence for Sydney-based Mueller that his vision was possible.

For Mueller, the Bali project would be an extension of his work in Australia, which used locally-specific organic materials, such as sand for construction in deserts, and incorporated old- style architecture, such as the adaptation of traditional Japanese bracket-support flooring for Melbourne's Hoyts Cinema Center.

Mueller's explanation for his style was simple. "I already had a reputation in Australia of working with nature, not against it," he said. Mueller likes his constructions to be as immersed in its natural environment as possible. "I don't want to destroy a landscape. If you can see my buildings from a distance, then I have failed."

Yet Mueller's key to success is not merely his sensitivity to the environment, but also for the societies which live there. "I've always believed that all traditional peoples have found a suitable architecture that fits their place and culture.

Building technology that has evolved all these years has to be looked at because it does work in their environments," he said. Mueller's respect for the local communities is legendary --for his first project in Bali, no nails or power tools were allowed for construction, road builders had to work in bare feet so as not to disturb anything, and a local priest was hired as consultant so that the timing of foundation and roof work was agreed by the gods.

But applying local technology, materials and customs is not only culturally sensitive, but also cheaper, says Mueller. For the new, 24-acre Oberoi Lombok on Medana Beach, North Lombok, Mueller used mostly what was found in the area: pink coral and limestone for the walls, bamboo, coconut trees and thatch for other furnishings of the 20 luxury villas, 12 of which have private pools.

Much of the furniture was also handpicked in Lombok as Mueller believes in providing as much income as possible for the local communities. The dynamics are mutually beneficial: the Sasak- crafted coin-decorated pillows and woodwork enhance the resort's elegantly ethnic flavor.

Sprawling and spare of vegetation, the Oberoi Lombok is quite different from its Bali counterpart. Walking through the perfectly kept but fairly empty grounds, one can barely avoid the sweltering sun. Mueller says that space and that sun-baked feeling is exactly what Lombok is all about.

"It's intentional. All the trees were there already, we didn't want to add any more trees. Bali is very dense, but I wanted to have that sparse feeling that is Lombok," Mueller explained.

Mueller's work for the Oberoi and in Bali is far from finished. He has two more Oberoi projects in Bali, the Oberoi Ubud and the Oberoi Bedugul, to complete.

Then he also has to oversee the expansion of the Amandari, the resort which also catapulted Mueller's name to prominence.

The Amandari was the first of the Aman Resorts Group's projects in Bali and in Indonesia, and started the media hype about this very exclusive celebrity hideaway. Adrian Zecha, director of the Aman Resorts Group, is largely credited with the resorts' savvy marketing, but Mueller, and his sleek but graceful architecture, carries the distinction of establishing Aman's reputation, at least in Indonesia.

It was, after all, Mueller's idea to build a hotel inspired by a Balinese village, and to blend the building with its natural environment. For example, Mueller's swimming pools, both at the Amandari and at the Oberoi Lombok, become like waterfalls into the vista -- swimming there feels like being in the sea or a lake edged with forest.

The Amandari was Mueller's pet project; he not only designed and built the resort, he also raised the money for it. Zecha came into the deal only two months before Mueller had finished construction, and by then Mueller was so exhausted, he handed the hotel management over to Zecha. After its opening, the Amandari went on to become one of the best luxury resorts in the world, its guest list including Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Princess Diana.

Zecha's Aman Resorts have since achieved phenomenal success with its other projects the Amanusa in Nusa Dua, the Amankila in East Bali, and the Amanwana by Komodo Island -- but without Mueller. For his part, Mueller shows no regrets. "I was too busy with other work to continue working with the Aman Group."

Besides, I think the work of Ed Tuttle and Carrie Hill (Aman Resorts' other architects) are very elegant and quite different than mine. I don't feel they copy me."

With regard to other followers, however, Mueller is more pointed, although he admits that imitation is indeed the highest form of flattery. "It's a good compliment when someone copies my style. But you can copy and never be the same as the original".