What’s in a name? When it comes to Aman, quite a lot. Known for its obsessive attention to detail, Aman rarely leaves anything to chance, least of all its nomenclature. Since its first resort, Amanpuri (Sanskrit for “place of peace”), opened on the Thai island of Phuket in 1988, every resort name has evoked place and peace. Amanruya in Turkey translates to “peaceful dream”, Marrakesh’s Amanjena means “peaceful paradise”.
Aman Nai Lert Bangkok, which opens tomorrow in the heart of the Thai capital, bears not only a location but an appellation: that of the man whose family has owned the land for generations. It’s the legacy of Lert Sreshthaputra, better known as Nai Lert, the Thai business magnate whose century-old house still stands next door.
For decades, the teakwood bungalow and the surrounding Nai Lert Park have been a green anomaly in Bangkok’s towering business district – a pocket of calm of which Nai Lert’s great-granddaughter, Naphaporn “Lek” Bodiratnangkura, is the current steward. Her great-grandfather shaped much of modern Bangkok, introducing the first ice business, public transport systems, and the first Thai-owned luxury hotel, Hotel de la Paix, housed in the city’s tallest tower at the time. His daughter and only heir, Thanpuying Lursakdi Sampatisiri, opened the country’s first Hilton hotel before becoming the first female government minister (of transport).
Often dubbed Thailand’s answer to Paris Hilton (though with a firecracker personality), Bodiratnangkura earned a hotel management degree in the UK, studied fashion at Parsons, and was a fixture on the global party circuit before settling into the family business in her 30s. “Before my grandmother left this earth, she told me to keep the soul of Nai Lert Park alive,” she says.
Bodiratnangkura has since turned her grandmother’s home into a museum and overseen the opening of a catering business, butler school and culinary academy in collaboration with Alain Ducasse. A string of cafés and restaurants have been opened around the leafy grounds. Yet for all its history, the family’s land was missing one thing. “I told my mom, ‘[A hotel] was the final piece in the system,’” she recalls. The reply: “Go find a brand that fits us.”
Bodiratnangkura already knew the answer, in the form of Aman CEO Vladislav Doronin. “When we met, our shared commitment to exceptional architecture, design, and craftsmanship was obvious,” he says. “It’s a full-circle moment to open an urban hotel in the country that was home to the first-ever Aman.”
Some six years and several postponed opening dates later, the result of that rapid-fire agreement rises 36 stories above the park’s ancient trees. Built to state-of-the art seismic standards it was unaffected by the tremors felt in Bangkok following the earthquake in Myanmar. Designed by Jean-Michel Gathy, a long-time Aman collaborator, the hotel pays homage to Nai Lert Park and the family home that Gathy and his team studied extensively for months. Gathy’s signature palette offers minimalist lines, and muted hues are punctuated with nods to Nai Lert’s influence. Brass light fixtures in the ninth-floor lobby bar resemble chunks of bark from the park’s persimmon trees, while the staggered floor patterns around the reception desk echo the teakwood floorboards of the Nai Lert heritage home. More overt references include floor-to-ceiling panels bearing blow-ups of Sampatisiri’s fingerprints, and the Nai Lert company logo, designed by the founder himself, subtly embedded in an artwork at 1872, the hotel’s lobby bar.
The lobby’s centrepiece, a life-sized tree sculpture inspired by Alberto Giacometti’s bronzes, emerges from the ceiling as a tribute to the century-old chamchuri trees growing just outside. Bodiratnangkura modified the architectural plans to avoid disturbing the upper branches of a century-old sompong tree (they now protrude through an opening in the 9th-floor swimming pool). “I had to take out insurance [for the tree] during construction,” Bodiratnangkura says. “The contractor was like, ‘S***…!’ But I cannot move these trees. My grandmother would wake up from her grave.”
The 52 guest suites’ floorplans are enormous and, with the smallest one clocking in at a lofty 92sq m, among the largest around. They’re fitted with buttery leather daybeds spread around various seating nooks, and open to some of the most sumptuous bathrooms in the city. They’re the priciest, too, with rates starting from around $1,100 per night (and significantly more during busier periods). They come with a long list of perks, including fast-track service and limousine pick-up from the airport, access to the 1,500sq m Aman Spa and wellness centre, and well-stocked minibars.
For dining, Sesui, a hushed eight-seat omakase counter, and Hiori, a theatrical teppanyaki spot seating just 14 guests, are both located on the 19th floor. At the latter, chef Yoji Kitayama brings a personal touch to tasting menus with house-made soy sauce, modern sakes, and melt-in-the-mouth beef from his hometown in Nagano. They join Arva, Aman’s signature Italian dining venue, and 1872, the bar named for Nai Lert’s birth year, where tea-infused martinis are poured from a 3D-printed miniature replica of his old water tank. The hotel’s upper echelons also harbour the Aman Lounge and a leather-trimmed living-cigar room that, along with the two Japanese restaurants, form a members-only enclave that’s increasingly an integral part of the Aman experience. If you’re not staying over as a guest or resident, it’s yours to enjoy for Bt2mn (about $60,000) – a relative bargain compared to the $200,000 initiation fee the Aman Club in New York commands.
My only gripe: the view, which can’t compete with some of its five-star Bangkok peers. My corner suite’s wall-spanning windows looked out over the canopy of Nai Lert Park, but also over an empty building lot and into the living rooms of condominium towers surrounding the hotel. Luckily, sheer blinds come down with a swipe on the bedside iPad that controls everything from the mood lighting to the temperature. Better views, perhaps, are reserved for the cash-flush tenants of the Aman Residences, whose apartments occupy the building’s 17 upper floors.
But Aman Nai Lert Bangkok aspires to be more than just a high-spec vanity project. Bodiratnangkura’s gentle insistence that her great-grandfather deserved a spot on the nameplate speaks to a broader conversation about legacy and reinvention. In the end, Doronin’s deal-closing words were as poetic as they were decisive: “I want to make history with you,” he told her. Let’s see if they can.
From US$1,100, aman.com. The hotel will be donating a portion of proceeds from every stay in April to charities assisting those in need in the aftermath of the earthquake
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