When Jose Rivero and Lee McNichol of Studio Sixty7 were commissioned to design Sun Siyam’s five-star resorts Iru Fushi and Olhuveli, they made a deliberate choice to resist the obvious. Rather than chase the ocean-and-sand postcard that defines most people’s idea of the Maldives, they turned inward — to the dense vegetation, the filtered light through coconut palms, the terrestrial identity of islands the world too often flattens into just blue water. The result is two resorts that feel genuinely rooted in place, shaped by local craftspeople, native materials, and a design philosophy that treats cultural heritage as more than decoration.
Studio Sixty7: The Maldives has its own building logic, developed over centuries in direct response to the climate and the ocean. Open-air layouts, timber structures, thatched forms: these traditions exist for a reason. The temptation is always to replicate them, to produce something that reads as heritage. What we tried to do instead was understand why those traditions exist and carry that reasoning forward. Local craftspeople were part of that process from the start, not brought in at the end to add authenticity. The result is spaces that breathe, move between inside and outside, and feel genuinely Maldivian. Not because they copy the past, but because they understand it.
HD: Many resort designs lean into the ‘tropical postcard’ aesthetic – how does your vision differ, what was your design emphasis?
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Hotel Designs.
