A 2019 Accenture survey of 6,000 consumers in 11 countries across North America, Europe and Asia, found that:

• 83% believe it’s important or extremely important for companies to design products to be reused or recycled.
• More than 50% would pay more for sustainable products designed to be reused or recycled.
• 72% said they were currently buying more environmentally friendly products than they were five years earlier.
• 81% expected to buy more eco-friendly products over the next five years.

The pandemic has set the sustainability movement backwards to some degree. In the hospitality sector it forced hotels and spas to push health and sanitation to the forefront meaning suddenly there was a lot of plastic and many disposable items to contend with.

Looking back, Amanda Frasier, Forbes Travel Guide’s Executive Vice President of Standards & Ratings, told Spa Executive, “Just before the pandemic hit, a big focus for us was launching sustainability standards. We paused releasing them because it wasn’t the right time to start evaluating people’s performance against reduction of single use plastics when everything had to be individually wrapped and there were millions of masks and miniature bottles of hand sanitizer in circulation.”

But FTG is now launching those standards and sustainability is again top of mind.

Sustainable travel matters to consumers

According to an article by FTG’s Jennifer Kester, a 2021 poll from Virtuoso, a global network of agencies that specialize in luxury travel, half of travelers surveyed said it’s important to choose a hotel, cruise line or travel company with a strong sustainability policy, 70% said traveling sustainably enhances their vacation experience, and 82% said the pandemic made them want to travel more sustainably in the future.

That being said, most consumers won’t choose sustainability at any cost. The Accenture study found that price and quality were still top considerations, cited by 89% and 84% of respondents, respectively.

As the price of eco-friendly production and packaging comes down, and consumer awareness grows, people will come to expect sustainable options and being green will become a cost of entry into mid- to-high level hospitality markets. Companies that don’t follow the flow risk being regarded as out of touch and tone deaf.

Potato Head Bali, where plastic is contraband

An example of what some might call extreme sustainability is Potato Head Bali. CNBC reports that a garbage emergency was declared in Indonesia in 2017 and Bali’s beaches were covered in waste. Potato Head seeks to not only reduce waste output but to also educate people about the problem.

Also according to CNBC, at the resort, menus are made of old tires and flip flops, soap dispensers and tissue boxes are made from oyster shells, polystyrene foam, bottle caps, and limestone; candle wax is made from used cooking oil, and glass candle holders are made from used wine bottles. At the entrance of the beach club is an art installation of 5,000 flip flops collected from Bali beaches. Single use plastics are banned. Only three percent of waste generated by Potato Head ends up in landfills.

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“The consumer today demands authenticity and they demand sustainable solutions,” Simon J. Pestridge, Chief Experience Officer of Potato Head Family told CNBC. “If you’re not focused on it, we don’t think you’ll be in business in a few years.”

“The younger generation that have disposable income for the first time, if you don’t offer them solutions, why would they come?” he added. As a bonus, Pestridge told CNBC that these efforts have actually resulted in cost savings for the resort.

Social justice to the forefront

It’s not just about sustainability. Research finds that consumers, particularly younger ones, want brands to go even further towards actively demonstrating an interest in protecting the world and its citizens. Recent research from the Corporate Social Mind found that Americans report spending more time learning about social issues and how companies are getting involved, and many are taking time to educate themselves more deeply about the social issues that interest them.

Sixty-six percent of respondents said that they visit a company’s website or use an online search engine to learn about the company’s support of a social issue on a somewhat frequent to very frequent basis. The issues listed in the study included, but weren’t limited to: racial equity, social justice, anti-discrimination; immigration/refugee issues, and environment and climate change.

Good intentions won’t be enough. A 2020 survey from Sprout Social also found that consumer loyalty could shift if brands don’t honor their social justice commitments and promises.

PR News reported that 42% of 1,000 consumers say they would start buying from competitors if brands don’t stay true to their word and follow through with action, and 55% said they “expect brands to take a stance that goes beyond corporate statements and monetary donations, such as new corporate initiatives, or commitments to specific goals.” These expectations increase to 65% among millennials.

Green Queen reports that a study from Wunderman Thompson backs this up. A survey of more than 3,000 respondents across China, the U.K. and U.S. found that 8 in 10 consumers now expect businesses to help solve global climate and social justice issues. More than 8 in 10 want businesses to “play their part” to solve the challenges of climate change and social inequality, 88% think sustainability should be a standard business practice, and 82% said businesses should put people and the planet before their profits.

Furthermore, consumers are making stronger connections between sustainability and other socioeconomic issues — 80% believe that climate and environmental issues are “inextricably linked” with poverty, inequality, and social justice.

“Regenerative,” is apparently a term people are using to refer to brands that go beyond recycling or becoming carbon neutral and that are actively working to have a positive impact on the planet. Green Queen reports that being “regenerative” will become a major value that consumers are looking for from brands. They will also want evidence to back up claims.

Companies looking to win over younger, affluent consumers would do well to take heed. With elder millennials now in their 40s, Generation Z is moving in, making up an estimated 20% of the global market and increasing parts of the travel and wellness markets. Gen Z consumers are the most conscious and are at the forefront of driving demand in sustainable industries.

What does this mean for spa, wellness, and hospitality?

We are all probably somewhat informed on how to be more sustainable in our businesses with low impact products in sustainable packaging, eco-friendly cleaner, energy efficient spaces, and finding more ways to reduce waste

Beyond that, forward thinking spas are marrying sustainability with social issues. In a Spotlight interview with Spa Executive, Arabelle del Pilar Rosario, Spa & Wellness Director for Meliá Hotels International in Dominican Republic, said one of the company’s spa concepts is “a focus on local roots using ingredients like coffee, salt, and chocolate from the Dominican Republic.” She went on to say, “We use Moringa, which is a superfood and powerful plant that grows everywhere in the country. It will grow as much as you cut it, so it’s very sustainable which is important to us. We take pride in our efforts to support local economies and protect fragile ecosystems, using earth-friendly products sourced from within 100 km of each of our locations. I see this as a way of adding authenticity to the spa experience while helping surrounding communities.” 

Given the volume of available information about the global state of affairs, it stands to reason that consumers will become more conscious  in the coming years, and those with spending power will want these concerns addressed.

The spas and luxury hospitality companies that pay attention will come out ahead. 

As written by Elizabeth Bromstein on 23rd of March, 2022 for Spa Executive.

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We’re dreaming of long, lost afternoons at some of the world’s very best beach bars. Read about the spots around the globe that have caught our eye – from the Greek islands to Tulum.

5. Potato Head Beach Club, Bali

This hot ticket in Seminyak has been a crowd-pleaser since its opening in 2010, but 2020 saw it morph into something altogether more interesting. The club has now expanded as part of Desa Potato Head, South-east Asia’s first creative village, which opened its doors this spring and brings together a hotel, restaurants and co-working spaces (a vinyl library and recording studio among them) in an enormous, beachy brutalist courtyard designed by Rem Koolhaas-founded OMA. The beach club itself has almost doubled in size, with sleek black straw umbrellas and teakwood sunbeds lining the gem-blue pool. Balinese soundscapes accompany early-morning yoga sessions or traditional dance performances in the adjoining terrazzo-clad amphitheatre, then slowly fade into blissed-out Balearic beats as the day progresses.

The food is feel-good and mostly plant-based – smoothie bowls and vegan soft serve – and the fourth-floor rooftop bar (one of the island’s first) is the go-to spot for Indonesian arak-spiked sundowners and snacks from a built-in satay station. Best of all, the brand has sustainability at its core and turns rubbish into zero-waste treasures, with staff uniforms made from eucalyptus-tree pulp, recycled cooking-oil candles and larger-than-life art installations created with beach litter. Potato Head is bigger, better and leading the charge in considerate environmental practice in this busy part of the island. – by Chris Schalkx

An excerpt from CN Traveller and as written by Issy Von Simson on 23rd of March, 2022.

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When Indonesian entrepreneur Ronald Akili co-founded the lifestyle and hospitality brand Potato Head in Jakarta back in 2009, he aspired to bring exposure to Indonesian culture. In 2010, the brand expanded to Bali with the now world-famous Desa Potato Head — a beachside hospitality complex featuring a hotel, two restaurants and a beach club. Dubbed Bali’s first ‘creative village’, the popular concept has received a cool new addition in the form of  HEADSTREAM.

The radio studio, listening bar and record store was designed in collaboration with Bali-based architecture and interior design practice ZXC Studio, and echoing Akili’s original idea, the aim with this new space is to provide a platform for Indonesian musicians, DJs and other creative voices to share their work far and wide. Equipped with a DJ booth and audio and video live-streaming equipment, the studio is home to a daily online live radio station that allows listeners from around the world to tune in.

Situated at the entrance of Desa Potato Head within the curved body of The Womb — a 90-metre-long bamboo tunnel by Balinese artist Nano Uhero — the studio looks out into the tunnel through a large rectangular window framed in terrazzo-like red and white recycled plastic. The DJ booth faces the window, allowing artists to connect with visitors. ‘The studio had to be an enclosed and acoustically controlled environment, while also being visible from the outside,’ explains architect Zhi Xiong Chan, founder of ZXC Studio. At the back of the space, a built-in sofa features cushions embroidered in curvilinear patterns by collaborating artist Kanoko Takaya.

Next to the studio, a work space and listening bar welcomes visitors who want to browse through a selection of records and magazines available for sale. ‘The listening bar creates a seamless transition between the surrounding bamboo installation and the studio’, says Chan. ‘The overriding objective was to create a dialogue between the studio, the communal work space and The Womb.’ To this end, the listening bar and the studio are connected by a smart pivoting wall, which easily turns the two spaces into a single 60-square-metre space. In the communal work space, a nine-metre-long bar with an integrated vinyl player and matching stools features the same red and white material as the studio’s window frame — a material emphasis that creates a sense of continuity while highlighting the project’s environmentally conscious design approach.

‘The space had to be built with sustainability in mind, which is one of the key pillars of Desa Potato Head,’ says Chan. In total, 564 kilograms of recycled plastic were incorporated into the design. Motor oil bottles were repurposed into construction panels, industrial rubber waste was used to build the floor, and water bottle caps collected from waterways across Bali were turned into the red and white material featured across the space — bold choices that give HEADSTREAM its unique look while staying true to Potato Head’s commitment to sustainability.

As written by Nina Milhaud for Design Anthology.

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Indonesia is made up of 17,508 islands. Bonkers. It’s the largest archipelago in the world. Lying within it, on the island of Bali, is Desa Potato Head. It has nothing to do with our brown starchy friend, though. It’s actually a subterranean kingdom, a sustainable oasis, a cultural centre-meets-hotel in the heart of Seminyak. It’s the mega holiday resort you’ve probably never heard of.

It’s been a little over a decade since ambitious hotelier Ronald Akili had the idea for Potato Head with his biz partner Jason Gunawan. Given the sheer scale of the resort (it’s on a three-hectare beachside plot) and its international cool-factor (parties, parties, parties!), it’s wild to think that Potato Head started off as a casual restaurant in Jakarta, where Akili had moved after spending 13 years in Hawaii. But right from the beginning the duo had big plans to build something meaningful.

“We wanted to introduce something new in the hospitality industry, something like a community-based MoMA PS1 or Barbican meets hospitality,” Akili says over Zoom, dialling in from Singapore. ​“That’s the approach we wanted to take when building Potato Head. We didn’t want to create another resort where people go there, get totally loose, go back and everything is back to normal.”

“The impact of the pandemic is going to linger for a while, so we want to do our part” – Ronald Akili

Right there. That’s the selling point for Potato Head. This isn’t a getaway to get pissed, laid and arrive back in Heathrow with a dodgy tribal tattoo two weeks later. Rather, it’s an immersive resort where you can unwind and lose yourself in the art, music, design and food initiatives on offer, in the interest of becoming a better version of you. The resort prides itself on sustainability, too. Furniture is made out of recycled plastic bottles, used cooking oil is turned into candles, wine bottles are recycled and turned into wine glasses.

Over the years, Potato Head has also played host to a number of cultural touchpoints. In 2017, they partnered with the Stüssy Tribe for a mix of live performances from Benji B, Martelo, Patta’s Soundsystem and Acyde, and Tremaine Emory’s all-encompassing nightlife hybrid, No Vacancy Inn.

A year later, they celebrated the one-year anniversary of Singapore’s Dover Street Market, partnering with DSM on a line of tropical-printed shirts alongside designs by Fergus ​“Fergadelic” Purcell of Palace and Aries. Most recently, just before the pandemic, Potato Head launched Design Week, with established names like super cool British furniture designer Max Lamb heading up workshops on how to make DIY recycled plastic furniture for local communities.

“We had local talents and designers showing off their products,” Akili says. ​“We had the Dutch Design Foundation partnership showing you sustainable materials, too.” In between, local musicians and DJs played sets, and Virgil Abloh closed the week off with a special gig. ​“Being able to go on holiday, get all of that and return back is all part of being in the Potato Head community.”

Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has left a sizable dent in Potato Head. Like most hoteliers, Akili had to make the difficult decision to shut up shop for over a year as Covid-19 ravaged through Indonesia, with 4.2m cases reported since early last year. The community – the core of Potato Head – was brought to a halt. But Akili has taken it in his stride and devised a plan of action, the Sweet Potato Project, designed to give back to the Balinese people and work towards a sustainable future.

“We believe the impact of the pandemic is going to linger for a while, so we want to do our part,” he says. ​“We’ve been teaching locals about regenerative farming, which helps to absorb carbon and also feeds the communities that need it.”

As well, over the past year, Potato Head has been gathering produce every week, working with Green School, an international school in Bali, using a zero-waste bio bus to revolutionise transport in the city. Using that, Potato Head has been serving ​“over 14,000 meals and we want to continue that”.

For them, it’s not just about feeding people, but about gathering the community together with a ​“positive vibe,” as Akili says. ​“We want to take the idea of extending what we do with sustainability and making it beautiful, relevant and accessible.”

Desa Potato Head has just launched HEADSTREAM – an online music streaming service. Listen to the first stream here, close your eyes and pretend you’re on the beach. Ahh.

As published in The Face on 1st October 2021

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The experience of luxury resorts usually begins at their grandiose lobbies, but not for Potato Head Studios. It’s not that the latest luxury resort to the creative compound of Desa Potato Head in Bali is missing one; from the get-go, they are just setting up expectations in a different way.

The experience effectively starts at the Circle Store. In this compact circular room, guests get to pick out a complimentary Potato Head stainless steel tumbler and a handsome reusable tote bag for themselves. This gesture immediately sets the foundation for the uniquely Potato Head experience and is a precursor to their mantra: “Good Times, Do Good.”

Spending your nights in Potato Head Studios means casting away the preconceived notions of luxury. Here, luxury takes on a different (and increasingly urgent) form. Designed by the renowned Dutch architecture firm OMA, the resort takes on a subtle approach to aesthetics, putting sustainability and regenerative hospitality at the forefront of its concept.

“There is a sustainable element in every part of the property”, said Fysh Liam, Head of Guest Experience. One need not look far. Inside the rooms, full amenities thoughtfully put together by the team are at the guests’ disposal: fully degradable slippers, bamboo chair by designer Max Lamb, rainbow-speckled trays made with recycled plastic waste and, most impressive of all, a Zero Waste Kit. The latter includes bamboo cutlery and ointment pots with refillable essentials (sunscreen, after-sun care, insect repellent and hand sanitiser).

“We want to encourage our guests to travel light,” as Fysh put it. But on top of that, the lightness also comes from this comforting sense that the resort is one step ahead when it comes to making sustainable decisions for the guests. Rather than flashy cards behoving you to care for the environment by reusing the towel or limiting water usage, in Potato Head, patrons can enjoy good times with ease, knowing that the resort will take care of each matter in the most sustainable way possible.

With that being said, Potato Head Studios has a discreet thoughtfulness that covers not only the experience and amenities but also the design of the room. Just take the Oceanfront Studio, for example. The masculine lines of the studio lead the eyes to the corresponding textures— eye-catching bathtub in smooth teakwood, a cube table that peels away to reveal an extensive in-room bar and a concrete wall cast in ironwood that resembles bricks from afar if you’re not paying close attention.

The deceptively simple and sparsely decorated room also allows the main highlight of the room to take centre stage: the Balinese sunset dipping into the horizon, complete with the soundtrack of crashing waves by the shore.

Trading exclusivity in for inclusivity.

A day at the resort can be spent soaking up the island vibe at the popular beach club, whiling the day away with good tunes and cocktails. Elsewhere, reserved guests can entertain themselves at the in-house library or take a leisurely stroll around the compound that resembles an open plaza with various public spaces (amphitheatre, gallery and music lounge). Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between resort guests and walk-in guests, and this cross-pollination that inspires a sense of community is precisely the aim of Ronald Akili, the founder of Desa Potato Head.

For an establishment that is famously known for its impeccable taste and as the pinnacle of cool on the island of Bali (they also throw mean parties, by the way), it is also incredibly child-friendly. Children exist as independent beings alongside adult guests, immersing themselves in workshops that promote a circular future. “We have kids’ workshops led by our Sustainism team, like making bracelets from waste,” said Fysh.

It can be dispiriting to think that we’ve gotten to the point where children are now learning about the impact of waste at a young age instead of colouring picture books. Still, given the current climate, it’s precisely the uncomfortable conversation we need to have, and Potato Head isn’t afraid to go there.

“Good Times, Do Good” is an addictive feeling.

With the world slowly recovering from the onslaught of COVID-19, there is an optimism that things are finally returning to normal with borders reopening and tourism returning to business. But there’s also a disquieting sense that environmentalism will take a backseat in favour of economic recovery.

Therefore, Potato Head Studios’s (and Desa Potato Head as a whole) tireless push for sustainability and regenerative hospitality feels more relevant than ever. Besides the infrastructures at the resort, the establishment is committed to empowering the local economy through farming programmes that directly involve local communities, and they have also partnered with River Watch Activism to address marine debris and water pollution.

The result, at a glance, can seem like the total opposite of luxury. After all, luxury itself involves a certain degree of disconnection from reality. But over at Potato Head Studios, the harsh truth is seen as a catalyst for refinement. And where guests are effortlessly reeled into eco-movements in their experience at the resort, the vision of a circular future may have a lasting impact on the visitors who, once home, could be intrigued to revisit the one or two practices they’ve learned on sustainability. Indeed, “Good Times, Do Good” is an addictive feeling.

As written by Julius Kensan, 25th October 2021 for Manual.

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As any hotelier will tell you, building a hotel requires an almost masochistic appetite for long project deadlines, eye-watering expense outflow and an even longer horizon for an adjusted-for-inflation return on investment. In most cases, five years is a bare minimum, but in the case of Ronald Akili’s ambitious Desa Potato Head project, that horizon has stretched to a decade—and the Jakarta-based real-estate developer turned hotelier is still not done.

The first salvo was fired in 2010 when Akili—the son of prominent Indonesian entrepreneur and collector Rudy Akili, who also opened the Akili Museum of Art in Jakarta—launched Potato Head Beach Club in a quiet stretch of Bali’s Seminyak neighbourhood.

By any yardstick, it was a game changer: a slick mix of restaurant, music club, bar and pool, and social hangout for both locals and the greater community of hipsters that turned the tired old trope of Bali as the backdrop for surfers, yogis, spiritual shrines, traditional gamelan orchestras and kohl-eye-lined dancers on its head. For here was a thoroughly fresh take on Bali, a place whose setting was steeped in tradition but whose programming felt thoroughly millennial.

Exhibit B was five years in the making. In 2015, Akili opened the 58-suite Katamama right next to Potato Head Beach Club, tapping Indonesian architect Andra Martin and Singapore-based interior designers Takenouchi Webb to create a quietly modern space that was layered with teak and terrazzo, Balinese bricks and hand-made Javanese tiles. It was another instant hit.

Even so, few really appreciated that both Potato Head Beach Club and Katamama—and the sweep of restaurants that Akili opened in the interim in Singapore and Hong Kong as well—were test beds for a more ambitious expression of his belief that genuine hospitality “lies in the interaction between different cultures.” Specifically, “authentic, not ethnic” has been an abiding mantra. This year, Akili launches in stages what he describes as the last piece of the puzzle: the Creative Centre.

Beyond Borders

For this most affable of hoteliers, a hotel has so much more potential beyond being merely a place to check into and sleep. At the very least, it is a space that should be open to everyone; specifically, the local community and visiting guests—a communal space where strangers can meet naturally and form creative and emotional bonds. In other words, a village. “I have been dreaming about the idea of building a village for 10 years, ever since we opened our first venue in Bali,” Akili says.

And yet ‘village’ is something of an understatement, because it seems to imply something bijou and rustic, a place where you might expect to see, say, a troop of hens pecking at the dirt amid some alang-alang thatched huts. Akili’s village, or Desa Potato Head, to be formal, is a 387,500sqft complex that includes Katamama and Potato Head Beach Club, at the heart of which is the new Creative Centre.

Akili’s ambitions for the 258,000sqft Creative Centre have, except perhaps the Villa La Coste complex in Aix-en-Provence, few parallels in modern hospitality. This, he points out, is a new type of holistic experience where music, art, design, food, wellness and sustainability collide for both the local community and guest. “We’re not trying the change the industry. We want to create an entirely new model for it.”

Over the course of 2020, the Creative Centre will unveil a 168-room hotel called Potato Head Studios, farm-to-table restaurants, a host of bars, a multifunctional gallery, an environmentally driven kids’ club, several rooftop communal zones, an amphitheatre, a beachfront pool, a music recording studio, Wild Life Archive (a collection of posters, books and resources on techno, disco and acid house) and Klymax, a high-fidelity, subterranean discotheque designed in partnership with DJ Harvey.

As written by Daven Wu on 11st February 2020 for Tatler Asia.

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It’s refreshing, then, to witness a lifestyle brand emerging not from big-chain focus groups but from the singular vision of an Indonesian entrepreneur focused on culture and community. Potato Head, founded by Ronald Akili, began as a restaurant in Jakarta. It has since grown to include outposts in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bali. The Desa Potato Head property in Bali has a beach club, a boutique hotel consisting of suites called Katamama, the oceanfront Potato Head Studios, and the latest piece of the “creative village” complex, a larger hotel footprint launching in May designed by Rem Koolhaas’ firm, OMA.

Key to Akili’s approach is the notion of an actual community. In a place like Bali, where tourism is rampant and there can be little to no interaction with locals, intermingling is the opportunity. It’s the opposite of what the Travel Almanac recently called Bali Syndrome when describing the ramifications of segregated tourism and the resulting implosion of culture. The root of this is the disconnect between hospitality developers and locals.

Potato Head, on the other hand, manages an incredible balancing act: Its properties are beautifully designed and glisten with a new twist on Balinese culture. They attract global tastemakers like DJ Peggy Gou, Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh, and DJ Harvey (who designed the new club at the Bali property). Yet there’s decidedly not a too-cool-for-school vibe, as you might detect at say, a Standard or a Freehand. Rather there is an emphasis on community and the commingling of different approaches and even life stages.

This welcoming atmosphere was readily apparent when I visited the beach club in the evening. Families were out in full force, a few grandmothers were chilling out, and travelers from around the world were mixing with residents. There was a feeling of respect and harmony. The same can be said from the property outwards. The relationships with local farmers, craftsman, and purveyors are strong — and you get the sense that the community has been intentionally crafted in a symbiotic way that respects the core DNA of Bali but also pushes, prods, and makes it contemporary in some ways.

Akili told me this is not an accident, but rather by design. “Potato Head has always thought of itself as a family, and we treat everyone who joins us as an extended part of it,” he said…”So the whole idea behind our creative village is to encourage interaction between different members of our family in hopes they will inspire each other. We do this in a few ways. For starters, we do a lot of free events  — from morning yoga to late-night dance parties  — which encourage a mix of people to attend. We also make it easy for families to hang out here: Our restaurants serve food designed for sharing, we have areas of our pools that are kid-friendly, and our sunset performance includes characters from Balinese mythology that real kids and cool kids love all the same.”

The culture that has been developed around the brand doesn’t feel contrived, but rather something that has been built up and iterated over time. It’s one thing for a hotel in a tourist area to cart in international DJs by the ton and throw up galleries, but it’s another to cultivate new scenes and serve as a catalyst rather than a megaphone for things that already exist.

“We’ve grown our culture pretty organically, the pillars of art and design have always been in our DNA,” said Akili. “We do things based on our genuine interests, and this enables us to create experiences for our guests which are hard to replicate. … We run Potato Head with a lot of passion and creativity, and I think the DJs and other creatives that stay with us can feel this organic connection.” Indeed a scan through the Potato Head YouTube reads like a who’s who of modern producers. UK musicians Disclosure holed up at the hotel to write a song and acts like Peggy Gou stop in not just to play but also to collaborate with the brand.

“I think the community aspect is always in the back of their minds with what they’re doing,” said Tim Sweeney, an international DJ who has played events at Katamama. “While they are doing something that attracts a global audience, they’re not forgetting where they are and how they can help the island. Not just take everything from it. On the music side, this means making sure there are Balinese and Indonesian DJs on the lineups, having a record store focused on Indonesian music and studio space that [Bali-based DJ and producer] Dea is running for creating music with Indonesian artists.”

As Bali continues to develop, it has established a reputation of sorts. Some pockets can feel kitschy and backpacker-y. Some pockets can seem like new-age digital nomad hangouts. But the emphasis on celebrating Indonesian creativity is a counterbalance to this in an increasingly homogeneous, globalized world of tourism. Potato Head champions both old and new elements of Balinese culture: The interiors incorporate naturally dyed fabrics. Colorful clothing and Indonesian records and crafts are on display. And there is an emphasis on Balinese craft that carries through to the design of the new hotel.

“I wanted to help conserve Indonesian craftsmanship and engage the community while showcasing Indonesia in a modern context,” said Akili. “Almost every part of the hotel is handmade by the best artisans on the island. For example, we decided to work with a local brick company that had only been making temple bricks for many years. Through architect Andra Matin’s vision of using them for the hotel, other companies began to see potential in using them for commercial projects as well, and the brickmaker expanded his studio, and nearly the whole village is working there now!”

When discussing what the future holds for Bali in terms of tourism, and the inevitable question of sustainability, Akili told me that some of the ways forward might come about in looking to the past. “As a brand, we’re inspired by Bali and we want to showcase its traditions and values — which have remained unchanged for thousands of years — as we take Potato Head to other parts of the world. We also think Bali is the perfect place to experiment with innovation and change. A lot of the solutions for the future can be found by studying the ancient past.”

The brand recently launched Ijen, a zero-waste seafood restaurant where, according to Gourmet Traveller, “plastics are processed into building bricks, green scraps are fed to local livestock, fish scales are the star ingredient in rice-flour crackers.” They also launched Tanaman, a plant-based concept that plays on the traditional flavors of Indonesia in a modern way. Akili cited some of his travels in super-remote areas of Indonesia as examples of how you don’t need to be techie and futuristic to be a strong conservationist. He asserted there are lessons from how cultures have been sustainable long before it became a hospitality byword.

With Potato Head, one gets the feeling of an emerging local and global brand coexisting at the same time. The culmination of art, hospitality, music, and culture are all packaged through an Indonesian lens, but it also feels hypermodern and worldly. And it’s based on elements both ancient and new, through food, music, design, and craft. With all of this, it’s clear that Indonesian culture deserves more attention around the world, and according to Akili, this is part of the overall vision: the opportunity to export Indonesian culture on a global scale.

“The aspiration for Potato Head has always been to go from a hospitality brand to a lifestyle brand,” said Akili. “This has been a plan 10 years in the making.”

As written by Colin Nagy on 13th February 2020 for Skift.

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In 2010, the now legendary Potato Head Beach Club opened its doors on the Indonesian island of Bali. With a Colosseum-inspired facade made of colourful repurposed window shutters, it went on to become an iconic landmark in the vibrant neighbourhood of Seminyak.

Inside, daybeds are positioned around an infinity pool, overlooking a sandy beach. On the 500 sq m lawn, guests can be seen sunbathing. A trendy mix combining restaurant, music club, bar and pool, Potato Head Beach Club has become a social hangout for the hipster crowd, attracting both travellers and locals alike. 

Fast forward a decade and the beach club has now expanded to become what its founder has termed a “creative village”. Now known as Desa Potato Head (“desa” means village in Indonesian), the area comprises two hotels alongside the beach club – the all-suite Katamama and the 168-key Potato Head Studios.

The man behind it all is none other than Jakarta-born, Singapore-based entrepreneur Ronald Akili. The 39-year-old, who relocated to Singapore in 2020, is the third son of Indonesian tycoon Rudy Akili, who established Smailing Tour in 1976, one of Indonesia’s leading travel agencies. Rudy Akili is also a prominent art collector, who founded the Akili Museum of Art in Jakarta. 

“I grew up constantly travelling and when I was young, my first job was being a tour guide with my family’s business,” the younger Akili recalls. “I’ve always been exposed to art, architecture and design as well, as my dad was an avid art collector.”

Despite being born into a family empire, Akili harboured ambitions of striking out on his own. At the age of 13, he moved to Hawaii to pursue his education. There, he chose entrepreneurial studies as his major, knowing that one day, he would start his own venture.

“I wanted to build something meaningful, something that I would be passionate about. I couldn’t see myself working a typical office job,” he shared.

Akili eventually moved back to Jakarta at the age of 25. Back in his home city, he founded an art gallery together with his friend and business partner, Jason Gunawan. He then dipped his toes into real estate with a high-end housing development in Jakarta, designed by some of the country’s top architects.

Potato Head was his third venture, and Akili never intended for it to grow as big as it did. It all started with a restaurant in Jakarta.

“My wife Sandra was a chef living in London. She was moving back to Jakarta and we were looking to settle down. That was when I called my partner Jason and said, ‘let’s build Sandra a restaurant’. It was meant to be a fun project where we could showcase the kind of art, music and design that we liked. Sandra would run the kitchen.”

Initially meant as a side project, the restaurant, called Potato Head Jakarta, soon took off. Works of local artists hung on the walls, while classic comfort foods featured on the menu. As a hip and casual eatery, the restaurant stood out among a sea of elegant, showy restaurants in Jakarta.

The success of the restaurant spurred Akili to turn the company into a global brand. “We felt that the global market wouldn’t pay much attention to Jakarta, so we looked to Bali as our stepping stone.”

A Decade In The Making

Akili and his team proceeded to acquire a three-hectare site in Bali, with plans to develop it in stages. He notes that from day one, he desired to create a global lifestyle brand out of Indonesia, starting with the Potato Head Beach Club. Next came Katamama, an all-suite hotel designed in collaboration with Indonesian architect Andra Matin, which opened its doors in 2015.

The third and final stage was to build an expansive creative playground, consisting of the 168-key hotel Potato Head Studios. As the crown jewel of Desa Potato Head, Potato Head Studios is more than a typical hotel.

Designed by architect David Gianotten of OMA, the Dutch practice founded by Rem Koolhaas, it’s a place where tourists can interact with the local community, featuring a creative centre with spaces dedicated to sustainability, cultural immersion and the arts.

Potato Head Studios opened in July this year, completing Akili’s 10-year vision. Beyond Indonesia, the company also has two international restaurants – Potato Head Singapore, which opened in 2014 on Keong Saik Road, and Potato Head Hong Kong which opened in 2016 in the Sai Ying Pun neighbourhood. Both overseas outposts have enjoyed considerable success in their local markets.

The name Potato Head is nothing if not memorable, but if you’ve ever wondered how it came about (no, it has nothing to do with the Mr Potato Head toys), Akili divulged that it started off as an “inside joke” between the founders.

“We didn’t think that Potato Head was ever going to become a company. We just thought it sounded catchy. Other people were opening restaurants with fancy and elegant names, and we just wanted to be a bit of a rebel,” he laughed.

With his 10-year vision for Desa Potato Head now complete, what’s next for the brand? Now that the company has established itself in the F&B and hospitality realm, “the next step is to create a sustainable product line focused on homeware,” Akili shared. “We also want to develop the experience arm of Potato Head where you don’t have to come to Bali to experience our way of life. This could be in digital formats such as streamed events, or offline wellness retreats in city centres in different parts of the world.”

Becoming Carbon-Neutral

At the heart of all Potato Head’s ventures is a commitment to sustainability. While the company became Indonesia’s first carbon-neutral hospitality brand in 2018, Akili admits that sustainability hadn’t always been a key priority for the company.

Five years ago, Akili went surfing in Bali with his eldest son. “We were 500m underwater in the ocean and we were surrounded by trash. When we went back to the beach, we saw over 1km of trash just piled up, almost reaching our knees,” Akili recalled.

“That was a really big moment for me. I have four young children and I love nature, I love the ocean. I thought of my kids growing up without being able to experience the gifts of nature, and from that day, I made the commitment that with anything that I do, I want to make a change. As an entrepreneur, the best way for me to do that is to utilise my businesses,” Akili continued.

In Desa Potato Head, Akili shares that 97 per cent of trash is managed in-house, with only three per cent deposited in landfills. Furniture and amenities are crafted from locally-sourced and eco-friendly materials. These included ijuk, a local roofing material, handmade breeze blocks, terrazzo made from waste concrete chunks, and ceiling panels woven by local craftsmen from 1.7 tonnes of recycled plastic bottles.

“Most of our hotel amenities from our tissue boxes to our soap dispensers are made from the waste that we produce inside our village and the surrounding island,” Akili added.

Akili’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond his work with Potato Head. Last year, he launched The Wasted Collective, a sustainable lifestyle clothing brand made up of casual staples such as hoodies, overshirts, T-shirts, and sweatpants. The clothes are created utilising three eco-friendly fabrics – washi, a lightweight fabric made from tree bark fibres; EcoLife, a 50/50 blend of recycled cotton and sustainably-farmed virgin cotton fibres; and ReCraft, made from panels of deconstructed and repurposed clothing.

The brand will soon launch a footwear collection. “I’ve always wanted to make it easy for people to make sustainable choices without compromising on beauty and comfort. Through The Wasted Collective, I wanted to take that philosophy outside of the hospitality world, outside of Bali and into a global audience with a product arm,” Akili explained.

Living In The Moment

As a serial entrepreneur, Akili no doubt has a busy schedule. Still, he makes it a point to invest a large portion of his time towards his health and family.

“First and foremost, I am a family man,” he asserted. “I have four young children and an amazing wife. I want to constantly grow to become a better dad, a better husband and a better son. Over the past few years, I’ve been investing a lot in my mental and spiritual health. I do yoga and meditation. I also do a lot of learning and reading.”

Akili starts each day by waking up at 5am. Instead of checking his phone, the first thing that he does is meditate. “I wake up without any technology as I just want a quiet mind. I do a lot of journaling and reflecting too,” he explained.

Following a meditation session, Akili makes time for exercise. He practices yoga daily and after moving to Singapore last year, he picked up swimming as he can no longer surf in the waters here. Sometimes, he takes walks in the parks.

He then helps the kids get ready for school, before starting his workday at 9am. He tries to wrap up by 5.30pm to have dinner with his family. On weekends, he “completely shuts off”. “I switch off my phone, I don’t check for any messages or emails. I usually spend my time reading,” he said.

Living in a technological age where work seeps into our daily lives, Akili’s commitment to mindfulness is certainly commendable. “It has been a constant progress. Five years ago, I was on the verge of burning out. I was constantly on a plane, and I would wake up in the middle of the night and the first thing I saw was my phone, with all the emails popping up,” he admitted. “I’ve been learning a lot on this mindfulness journey, and I’m still learning.”

Having been based in Singapore for a while now, which are his favourite spots in the city to spend his downtime? “I love going to the libraries here. I usually go to Queenstown Library. It’s a small library, but on the second floor, they have a reading room with an amazing view overlooking some trees. I just love being there,” he mused.

While Akili counts MacRitchie Reservoir and the Botanic Gardens as some of his favourite nature parks, he also enjoys walks on Changi Beach. “It has a very old-school feel. Everyone is so laid back and I love watching all these old uncles kayaking and fishing,” he quipped.

Whether it’s working on his projects, spending time with family or indulging in his passions, Akili believes “nothing else matters than being present in the moment”.

While he’s managed to carve out a successful career as an entrepreneur, ask him what’s most important to him and he’ll tell you this: “I just want to lead a happy, fulfilling life, and be content with what I do.”

As written by Melissa Stewart on 18th August 2021 for Channel News Asia.

The post Channel News Asia: “Meet the Indonesian entrepreneur behind Bali’s Potato Head resort” appeared first on Potato Head | A Destination for Good Times.

Travel might be off the menu for most but some corners of southeast Asia are still open for business. In Bali, Indonesian firm PTT Family has created a village escape.

On a blustery Balinese afternoon, a cooling sea breeze swings the hammocks that hang on the balconies of Potato Head Studios, a new 168-room hotel in Seminyak designed by Dutch architecture firm OMA (founded by Rem Koolhaas). A few gentle taps of the hammocks against a window prompt Ronald Akili, the founder of Indonesian hospitality group PTT Family, to investigate the noise. Opening the sliding doors lets in the sound of crashing waves and music coming from his phenomenally successful beach club next door.

The view outside takes in an infinity pool and the Indian Ocean. Friendly staff wearing pointy straw hats and Potato Head’s custom Balinese shirts serve colourful cocktails called kookaburras, koko lokos or pisang coolers to guests lounging on green daybeds. But this is no ordinary beach resort. The first clue is an open-air amphitheatre, a sunken stone performance area in the garden, shaded by palm trees and bamboo poles.

“When I first met with OMA I told them I wanted to create a new type of resort,” says Akili after he returns to his seat, a yellow-cushioned bamboo lounge chair created by Max Lamb; the same model appears poolside. UK designer Lamb is one of many international collaborators to work on the hotel; others include designer Faye Toogood and musician DJ Harvey. “Instead of a resort it’s a public space,” Akili says. “It’s a cultural institution, where we interact with tourists, locals and our team.”

Potato Head Studios has oodles of communal areas, pocket parks and decks that encourage co-working during the day and viewing the sunset. Music is everywhere: there is a vinyl library, a subterranean nightclub and a recording studio on the fourth-floor rooftop (watch out for the hydraulic DJ booth popping out of the wooden steps).

Potato Head has also acquired artist Steve Terry’s Wild Life Archive, an extensive collection of dance-music memorabilia going back to the 1970s, which will form the first few exhibitions at the in-house art gallery. Even the kids’ club – a staple of beach resorts – is distinctive; children at Potato Head learn how to make sustainable sculptures from salt that can be returned to the sea. “One of the first inspirations we had was to imagine a moma PS1 with rooms,” says Akili referring to the experiential gallery in New York. Indeed, he started out as a gallery owner in Jakarta before setting up a restaurant in the Indonesian capital (today he has six venues across Asia).

Akili’s latest opening marks the completion of the Potato Head desa (village). It’s been a decade-long project for the 38-year-old that’s seen him move the headquarters of his ptt Family hospitality group from Jakarta to Bali, open his beach club in 2010 and then follow that up with a tropical 57-room modernist retreat next door, the Katamama hotel (see issue 91). Whereas his latest venture is all about shared spaces, Katamama is a private sanctuary. Guests tend to be older, rooms loftier and prices higher. Katamama’s entry-level room rate will buy the biggest suite at the Studios, which is a natural home for the younger beach-club crowd.

“[Potato Head Studios] is a big creative playground that just so happens to have rooms and a restaurant,” says Akili. He sees his burgeoning hospitality empire as an accident and carries the moniker of hotelier as lightly as the floral shirts that he usually wears. Potato Head’s service is impeccable and typically Indonesian (“everyone is family”) but the head potato takes pride in the fact that most of his management team come from fashion, music or art backgrounds.

Creative director Dan Mitchell co-founded London boutique ln-cc before working with Akili. The 34-year-old Brit has been influential in setting up cultural events and building the programming team. What was a one-man band when he joined in 2014 now has 15 people. “This whole site is essentially an event space,” says Mitchell, who is planning Potato Head music festivals on top of the weekly schedules. “The Studios opens up possibilities and levels of programming that we couldn’t do before,” he adds. Mitchell has fond teenage memories of visiting the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in his native Newcastle and wants to provide similar stimulation to Balinese youngsters. “Hopefully it will become a pillar of the community and a public space for everyone to enjoy and learn from,” he says.

“Our floating-village concept comes from the original way that Indonesians live,” says OMA managing partner David Gianotten who led the design. “They always lifted up their private spaces from the ground and the living room is an open-air space.” The Studios is the first Potato Head project to involve non-Indonesian architects. Akili approached OMA because of its track record of multiuse developments that incorporate cultural institutions and commercial spaces.

Gianotten fondly remembers when Akili and his longtime Indonesian collaborator Andra Matin first walked, uninvited, into OMA’s Hong Kong office in 2012 to pitch the idea and kick off what he describes as an eight-year “adventure”.
This is the Dutch firm’s first beach resort – another element that excited Akili, a longtime Koolhaas fan. “If I’m going to hire someone who has already created 10 beach hotels then they are going to give me the same thing,” he says, before recounting the extended design process that inevitably came with trying to break new ground.

OMA’s first floating-village design had to be scrapped in 2016 – just before construction was due to begin. The design required steel to be shipped in from other parts of Indonesia and abroad, which went against the brand’s commitment to sustainability. What emerged in its place is a blend of oma and Andra Matin that shares plenty of dna with the sister hotel next door. Broken red bricks from the Katamama build have been recycled for the Studios’ brise-soleil façade that uses shapes from the Balinese calendar. OMA and Matin also designed the interiors; every room has at least one exposed brick wall. “It is branded as an oma design but you can see the influence of Andra Matin,” says Gianotten.

Working with OMA has clearly whetted the Potato Head team’s appetite for more international collaborations. Akili, Matin and Mitchell are currently working with Japanese architect Kengo Kuma on a new 10-cabin retreat that is set to open at the end of this year. It will occupy a remote two-hectare beachfront property west of Potato Head where guests can retire for a few days of sun healing, meditation and silence among the rice fields. A new fashion and homeware product line will also be launched, based in Los Angeles. “Our vision is to evolve Potato Head from a restaurant in a mall when we first started into a lifestyle brand with a higher purpose,” says Akili. Potato Head Studios is certainly taking the beach resort to a higher level. — (m)

As published on the Monocle magazine, Issue 133 in May 2020 by James Chambers.

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