‘Knai Bang Chat’ is Cambodian for ‘rainbow encircling the sun’ and a Buddhist metaphor that denotes the halo around Buddha’s head. Such a moniker befits this modernist paradise, as much for its optical imagery as the artistic ‘enlightenment’ on display. Just to look at it you understand why so many other private residences have appeared close by. Kep – beach town and once summer playground of the French elite – is back in business.
On looking at it, you wonder who was responsible for such profound yet studied strangeness. The protégé, business partner and son of legendary antiques dealer Alex Vervoordt is partly to blame, along with the ingenuity of architect Francoise Lavielle. Boris Vervoordt grew up in his father’s antique-strewn castle, developing a ‘third eye’ for objects of value and a talent for synthesising old and new artistic forms with strident architectural set-pieces – a unique ‘something’ that the travel press are quick to cite as this lifestyle resort’s greatest asset.
The three houses that make up the Vervoordt compound is an amalgamation of everything Vervoordt loves most – his own definition of luxury if you like – with influences from Andrea Palladio and Luis Barragan among others. Inside you will find a playful orchestra of 12th-century artefacts and contemporary architecture, as beautiful a juxtaposition of classical mood and new-age panache as I have come across. Large villa terraces opening onto vanilla sunsets, fresh fish dining on an azure-swept private jetty and the most charming khmer service makes this the quintessential Bond hide-out. If luxury were a mixture, Vervoordt would call it the ‘perfect combination of happiness and freedom’. Knai Bang Chatt, similarly illustrated, mingles Vervoordt’s modernist conceptions of luxury with a good bit of sun and sea.
For more information, go to www.knaibangchatt.com
