Press Releases
Amplifying Place: The Resort City
New models of lifestyle-oriented development anchor and generate urban space through hospitality, challenging the traditional divide between “resort” and “city.” KPF’s commitment to urbanism extends both to resorts, which can function as self-contained cities, and novel urban ecosystems that connect hotels and mixed-use functions to create “cities” with an emphasis on leisure.
The Resort As City
With their density of amenities, rich texture, and invisible infrastructural networks, many of the best resorts resemble nothing so much as miniature, self-contained cities. At Atlantis The Royal, we applied KPF’s urbanistic point of view to an environment that is not typically thought of as “urban,” creating an iconic destination that offers a best-in-class luxury experience though innovative architecture and planning.
Located on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah Island, the emirate’s premier resort destination, Atlantis The Royal is defined by its iconic architectural form. Combining residences, a hotel, conference facilities, and destination restaurants, the elegantly curved building’s two primary massings are connected by a skybridge. The massing is pulled apart, creating openings that serve as private and semi-private terraces equipped with plunge pools that overlook the Gulf and the Dubai skyline.
Though not traditionally “urban,” this unique form allows visitors to enjoy the privacy and seclusion of villa-style residences, but stacked and elevated, with the sweeping views and extraordinary amenities of high-rise living within a resort complex. Iconic resorts, such as Atlantis The Royal, create an urbanity all their own, serving as an attraction that brings together a cosmopolitan base of building users including guests, residents, and visitors to restaurants and other amenities.
Atlantis The Royal raises the bar for resort design as a sort of urbanism. Learn more about the project and go behind the design at the link below.
The City as Resort
Envisioning a new city as a resort destination in itself allows planners to construct a novel experience and sense of identity that draws workers, residents, and travelers, inviting immediate connectivity between work, living, and leisure.
Anchored by hospitality and entertainment, the city-as-resort concept envisions a vibrant, waterside district where living, working, and recreation seamlessly converge. The result is an aspirational urban realm that has a relaxed atmosphere and a strong commitment to wellness.
Opus Bay reinterprets the efficient, grid-based structure of a traditional city and thoughtfully situates it within the natural landscape of Batam, Indonesia, blending urban edges with lush surroundings. The plan features a dense mix of low-, mid-, and high-rise buildings, creating urban vibrancy between the water’s edge and the verdant landscape beyond. Rather than sprawling outward, development is concentrated, with a dynamic skyline designed to frame views of green hills, intricate mangrove wetlands, lagoons, and the sea.
Inspired by the landscape, the city’s architecture is punctuated by sky gardens, planted roofs, and generous open spaces. The city offers all the advantages of a 15-minute, mixed-use urban environment—where daily needs are within easy reach—supported by ferry connections and micromobility, all within a resort-like atmosphere. Unlike typical resorts, Opus Bay is open and inviting, designed to welcome a broad community rather than remain gated or exclusive.
Opus Bay in Batam, Indonesia, imagines the possibility of a multi-functional urban environment designed around leisure.
Resort-Focused Urbanism
The most successful resort destinations embrace and amplify an inextricably intertwined sense of their locale and brand, leveraging both global expertise and local sensibility to establish an aspirational experience that attracts guests. Expanding this idea to the scale of a resort city through phased development, mixed-use planning, and expanded infrastructure opens up new possibilities for places where people might come on vacation, visit attractions, or own holiday homes, but are also self-sufficient urban environments for leisure, living, and working. The form this expansion takes is entirely dependent on place.
A ski resort, such as Deer Valley, can incorporate alpine villages, replete with cozy cafes and clothing stores. Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah was initially anchored by resorts on its outermost islands before eventually filling in with thousands of residences and its own monorail system. In waterfront environments such as Da Nang and Al Fahid Island, a resort city can create new fabric that diversifies the development typology of the region, creating economic resilience.
These projects challenge us as planners to think beyond hospitality design—resort city design needs to be cross-sector, infrastructurally sound, and resilient in the long term, just as any well-planned city must be. Ultimately, the evolution from resort to resort city underscores the need for holistic, adaptable approaches that can shape vibrant, enduring destinations for a broad population of users.
A hotel development in Deer Valley—a premier ski destination in Park City, Utah—will anchor the development of slopeside condominiums as well as a small alpine village with year-round amenities.
A luxury residential and mixed-use development on the outskirts of Da Nang, Vietnam offers access to nearby hospitality and entertainment venues.
The Al Fahid Island resort in the United Arab Emirates creates an array of villa types along the waterfront and further inland, offering a variety of experiences and waterfront recreational opportunities to residents and guests.
