Caring is cool: My evening with Bill Bensley

Sensible sustainability and the future of travel, according to the ‘Willy Wonka’ of hotel design.

When Bill Bensley invites you over for cocktails you don’t say no. You get on a plane and fly to Bangkok, where the legendary architect and designer resides.

Obviously, this invitation was received before the coronavirus outbreak —when planes were still flying, hotels were still open, and an overnight stay in the Thai capital was still feasible. This was January.

Fast forward three months, the world feels like a different place today. But my conversation with Bensley seems more relevant now than ever before. Why? His eponymous studio is responsible for some of the most luxurious, innovative and sustainable hotels in Asia — and may provide the blueprint for the future of travel and hospitality (and business events).

Now in lockdown in Singapore, I think back to Bensley’s elaborate ‘Baan Botanica’ garden, where our interview took place — brimming with tropical ferns, flowers, trees, and sculptural art (including a clawfoot bathtub filled with orchids) — a fecund oasis in the middle of one of Southeast Asia’s busiest cities.

His six mischievous Jack Russells run rampant during our conversation, often interrupting, while the local mosquito population feast on my exposed ankles. I certainly wasn’t the master of my environment that night.

Instead, I was acutely aware of my small place within it — and this, I believe, is the lesson to be learned from Bensley’s work: We must co-exist with the natural world, not try to conquer it. Doing so will be good for humanity, good for the environment, and good for business.

Here is an excerpt of our conversation — amid the foliage and frivolity of Baan Botanica, and copious glasses of red wine…

You are the mastermind of some of Asia’s most luxurious (and iconic) hotels — and they all embrace sustainability. However, there’s a lot greenwashing that goes on in the hospitality industry. How can we encourage less talk and more action?

The big brands are afraid to get rid of single-use plastic, like toothbrushes, because they think their occupancy will go down. How many people do you know that do not travel with their own toothbrush? Or their own moisturiser?

Most people travel with what they want to use, but the fact that a plastic toothbrush with a plastic cap is sitting in the hotel bathroom right in front of you means that you’re going to use it, because your toothbrush is in the next room. We’ve all done it, and it’s wasteful. Its wasteful habits like these that we need to make unpopular and will become unpopular.

I think the future of hotels is all about a new experience, and the idea of learning something new.

But how do we encourage that behaviour change?

I think it’s like being in high school — the cool kids wear their hair in a particular style. The cool kids wear the ‘hang ten’ t-shirts. It’s the companies like Six Senses that will be the cool kids on the block who say: “Hey! Screw you guys. It’s OK to be single-use plastic free, in fact it’s more cool.” And everyone else, in a few years, will fall into line.

Shinta Mani Wild

One of your newest properties is Shinta Mani Wild, which opened in 2018 in the Cardamom National Forest in Cambodia. The property is the size of Central Park and houses just 15 tents — that’s one tent per 400 acres. What I love about this property is that there is a very clear purpose around conserving the natural environment. How important is it for you to have such purpose behind your projects?

It's paramount. I’ve done 200 hotels around the world in something like 40 different countries. I don’t take on projects that don’t have a purpose. We all need to be more environmentally sensitive. About eight or nine years ago, when we got to Tmor Rung, a little village in the southern Cardamom National Forest, the vast majority of people were hunting illegally and setting up snares at such a pace that they would have wiped out the animals in the forest.

Now, most of the people work for us. We have about 115 people who work for us on property — with 15 tents, so the service is really good! The purpose of Shinta Mani Wild is setting an example in Cambodia on how hospitality can go hand-in-hand, profitably, with conservation. It also gives hope to government that there is money to be made here, other than just chopping down the trees, so that’s really cool.

Earlier you said the project is about conversation. Actually it’s not — it’s about ‘rewilding’. Now we spend a large percentage of our money to maintain our own private army, Wildlife Alliance.

By maintaining that army, we keep the poachers and illegal loggers at bay and we also improve, not just maintain or conserve, but improve and ‘rewild’ the property we sit on that’s the size of Central Park. So almost every day, Wildlife Alliance is releasing animals that have been caught elsewhere in the forest onto our property, because it’s safe.

And this concept of ‘rewilding’, is it being done anywhere else?

In Southeast Asia, not that I know of. It’s just the opposite.

Bensley released ‘Sensible Sustainable Solutions’, an open-source guide, in January.

When you consider ‘rewilding’, do you think there is a connection between our wellbeing, as humans, and the natural environment?

Of course. We need to become closer to nature. The answers to our own health, I believe, are in those forests, are in nature itself, and we’re destroying it.

On the topic of ‘rewilding’ and a connection to nature, there’s another project you’re working on right now — the WorldWild Sanctuary in Wuchuan, in China’s Guangdong province. This has been called the ‘Human Zoo’. Can you tell us a little more?

Hahaha! Oh that’s a really cool project. Last year my Chinese client asked me: “Mr Bill, can you make for us a zoo?”. Well, I hate friggin’ zoos. I went to see most of the zoos in China and what I found was not pretty. What I saw were tigers jumping through hoops and that gives the absolute wrong impression to the Chinese people of what nature is.

But I thought to myself, he’s going to build this colossal project with seven hotels, so what can I do with it? Let’s take it the other way! Let’s try to use this property as a place to educate young people.

So, I’ve designed this animal sanctuary that has a series of IG-worthy, Broadway-type spaces. If you build a museum to educate people they will simply pass it by. But, if you create theatre that communicates in a language people understand, you can send very clear and poignant messages about nature.

So, that’s what we’re doing. We have a train that runs around the 2,000-hectare park, with 2,400 hotel rooms at the periphery. And [other than the human cages] there are no boundaries. There are no predators, so there’s no need for separation, which means you can see herds of animals.

So, for the first time ever, we’re not creating a zoo for animals, but a zoo for people.

Bensley’s design for a Hilton hotel at WorldWild sanctuary is based on an African termite mound (Source: CNN)

So 95 per cent of the space is dedicated to the animals, and only five per cent of this huge plot of land will be dedicated to where humans will be able to roam?

That’s right! Brands like Hyatt, Hilton, Conrad, and Four Seasons have already signed up. And most importantly, Shinta Mani Wild has also signed up. It’s a long-term project so likely to be ready in four or five years.

I’ve hired a zoologist who has been liaising with animals specialists from all over the world to get animals that don’t have trafficking records, so we’re trying to understand how to fill a sanctuary properly and respectfully – with no elephants shooting basketball hoops!

The Capella Ubud, Bali

Your design ethos is all about minimal intervention, evidenced in projects like The Capella Ubud. This is critical, particularly in Asia, where more and more are opening in fragile environments. Tell us more.

Whenever I look at a new project, especially in a sensitive environment, I see that whatever Mother Nature has created here is perfection, and no matter what I do, it will degrade that perfect.

So, what I put on that site has to respect and understand what she’s built for the last million years and if I can try to work with what she’s created then we might have something that’s more successful. Does that make sense?

Absolutely! It is very forward-thinking and you are a visionary in that sense. How can we encourage the ‘big boys’ of hospitality to embrace more sustainable building standards?

Funny you should ask! I’ve just issued, in 20 pages, the distillation of my entire life. It’s called Sensible Sustainable Solutions. I hope that as many hotel groups as possible can pick this up and slide it into their building standards.

So, your life’s work in 20 pages, I’m sure it’s…

It’s very dense. But I’ve written it in a way that’s pretty darn easy to understand and also a little bit humorous. There are aspects that speak directly to owners because the first thing they ask is: “If my hotel is green, will it cost me more money?” and my answer is that it can actually save you money. It talks about why we should be socially involved because that can make you money too.

It also talks to operators about all the different elements that I think are really important to have onsite — simple things like a shredder, a compost heap, growing food onsite, which is something I’ve done for many properties for many years.

Finally, it talks to designers, like me, referencing things like cross ventilation, providing natural light to all four corners of a room, recycling, etc. All those things that are pretty darn obvious — low-lying fruit that needs to be picked!

Bensley in his Bangkok studio

You’ve redefined luxury with your conscious design. How do you see luxury travel evolving in the future?

I the idea of fancy beds, and fancy sheets, and fancy chocolates, and all the usual ‘fanciness’ that we are used to expecting is totally dead. Luxury in that sense is dead. I think the future of hotels is all about a new experience, and the idea of learning something new. That is going to have a lot of legs in the future.

Hotels should have a purpose for teaching people something new. I know that sounds over-simple, but the vast majority of hotels don’t teach anybody jackshit.

I think that is a very powerful message, especially since Biz Events Asia readers are meeting and event professionals who bring people together to learn from each other…

Without being controversial, I think hotels are the churches of the future. I think meeting venues and hotels have a purpose to bring people together and they also have a voice. People are staying there for some time and that voice should be used for the betterment of mankind, in every single instance. Now, most hotels are just putting heads on beds.

One final question, if I may. What can corporate travellers and event professionals do to improve sustainable efforts?

First of all, when you’re picking a hotel, look at the sustainability record of that property, look at how they are engaged with the community, and if you do that it will send a message to those hotels that are just putting heads on beds, that they need to do more!

Since the coronavirus outbreak, Bensley has confirmed that the Human Zoo project in China is still going ahead. He also recently spoke to the Global Wellness Institute about the ‘rewilding’ of nature that is occurring in the wake of Covid-19.

This article was originally published in Biz Events Asia magazine.