Potato Head Studios designed by David Gianotten of OMA, the architectural firm founded by Rem Koolhaas, in Seminyak, Bali. The resort joins a growing list of hotels going beyond art on the walls is a hotel dedicated not only to guests but also the local community.
OMA organizes the 168 rooms in a raised structure, a floating ring lifted by pilotis, creating an open ground plane —or an open platform with direct access to the beach, for curated cultural events and daily leisure activities, which welcomes visitors of all kinds. At the roof top will be a sculptural park also open to public.
 
“A hotel that is typically for hotel guests’ exclusive enjoyment, into a place for cultural encounters open to everyone living in and exploring Bali.”
David Gianotten
 

Project description by OMA

Potato Head Studios, designed by OMA / David Gianotten and commissioned by Potato Head, completes in Seminyak, Bali. OMA’s first hotel dedicated not only to guests but also the local community, the Potato Head Studios features an open ground plane for curated cultural events and daily leisure activities, which welcomes visitors of all kinds.
 

“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.”

David Gianotten, Managing Partner – Architect.

 
In the Potato Head Studios, a floating ring lifted by pilotis accommodates the private guestrooms and other functions, including an exhibition space and a sunset bar. This has resulted in an open cultural ground plane—or an open platform—which leads to the beach. This is a flexible stage for a range of programs, such as festival celebrations, cultural events, and day-to-day leisure activities that welcomes everyone to experience Balinese contemporary culture. At the roof top is a sculptural park open to public, accessible via a public route that connects amenity spaces including restaurants, pools, and spas.
 
The Potato Head Studios was designed with the Indonesian context in mind. The open platform at the ground level and a private garden on the second level evoke the raised courtyards in Indonesia, and traditional Balinese courtyards found at the ground level. Textures of some concrete walls were created by local craftsmen, while the façade design of the guestroom corridors was inspired by Balinese Tika, or divination calendar.
 

“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. 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."

Potato Head founder Ronald Akili.

 
The Potato Head Studios, alongside Katamama and the Beach Club, form the Desa Potato Head. It is open for bookings and public visits.
 
The project is led by David Gianotten and Project Architect Ken Fung. The local design consultant is Andra Matin.

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Architects
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OMA. Associate in charge.- David Gianotten.
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Team
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Project Architect.- Ken Fung. Associate-in-charge (until 2015).- Michael Kokora. Senior Architect (until 2017).- Fred Awty. Team.- Diana Ang, Thorben Bazlen, Von Xiao Chua, Kwan Ho Li, Mike Lim, Ioana Mititelu, Catherine Ng, Slobodan Radoman, Rizki Supratman, Shinji Takagi, Patrizia Zobernig.
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Collaborators
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Local Architect.- Andramatin. Civil, Geotechnical, Structural Building Services.-
Aurecon. Landscape Consultant.- Larch Studio. Lighting Consultant.- Switch. Acoustic ConsultanT.- DHV.
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Client
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Potato Head
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Dates
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2019-2020
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Photography
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Kevin May
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David Gianotten is the Managing Partner – Architect of OMA globally, responsible for the overall organizational and financial management, business strategy, and growth of the company in all markets, in addition to his own architectural portfolio.

As Partner-in-Charge, David currently oversees the design and construction of various projects including the Taipei Performing Arts Centre; the Prince Plaza Building in Shenzhen; the KataOMA resort in Bali; the New Museum for Western Australia in Perth; the masterplan of Rotterdam’s Feyenoord City and the design of the new 63,000 seat Stadium Feijenoord; and Amsterdam’s Bajes Kwartier, a conversion of a large 1960s prison complex into a new neighborhood with 1,350 apartments.

David led the design and realization of the MPavilion 2017 in Melbourne and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange headquarters. He was also responsible for the end stages of the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. David’s work has been published worldwide and several of his projects have received international awards, including the 2017 Melbourne Design Awards and the CTBUH Awards in 2013. David gives lectures around the world mainly related to his projects and on topics such as the future development of the architectural profession, the role of context within projects, and speed and risk in architecture.

David joined OMA in 2008, launched OMA's Hong Kong office in 2009, and became partner in 2010. He became OMA’s global Managing Partner – Architect in 2015 upon his return to the Netherlands after having led OMA’s portfolio in Asia for seven years. Before joining OMA, he was Principal Architect at SeARCH in the Netherlands.

David studied Architecture and Architectural Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where he has also served as a professor in the Architectural Urban Design and Engineering department since 2016. Additionally, he serves on the board of the Netherlands Asia Honors Summer School.

 
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Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

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