Hotel Covo is El Nido’s new boutique hotel
The rooms and public spaces in Hotel Covo, El Nido break away from the norm with engaging, surprising yet highly functional designs.
The unusual but functional use of PVC pipes is architect Edwin Dychauco Uy’s example of “experiential interior design” as applied by his firm in Hotel Covo, the newest 20-room boutique resort in Northern Palawan’s Lio Tourism Estate in the municipality of El Nido. It’s an approach that makes you want to “touch, feel, interact and examine,” describes Uy.
Hotel Covo is one of four boutique resorts recently established by an AyalaLand Hotel and Resorts Corp. subsidiary. Together with a row of restaurants, dining and retail outlets, the resorts are part of an emerging self-contained 325-hectare Lio community where travelers and future residents can expect to enjoy for generations to come the beach, which is simply one of many destinations of the larger Bacuit Bay, known for its diversity and geography.
Because this group is characterized by their constant search for new experiences through dining, travel and similar activities, Uy set for himself the goal of immersing the guest in the Hotel Covo environment through highly sensual moments.
Past the bathroom to the right, the room opens up to reveal a wide panoramic photo of an iconic Bacuit Bay destination that stretches across the headboards and upward to the ceiling.
The Hotel Covo lobby seamlessly integrates the reception desk and bar. “Hotel behavior has changed,” says Uy, who is a University of Sto. Tomas architecture graduate. He also has taken design courses at the Domus Academy in Milan and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and is now pursuing a master’s degree in interior design in Hong Kong.
A wide panoramic photo of Bacuit Bay adds depth to the bedrooms at Hotel Covo. The 20-room boutique hotel is designed to reflect Lio’s nature-focused concept while adapting a modern theme.
Covo’s design breaks away from the usual through the unique use of materials. Screens — woven on sight from synthetic rattan, for instance — are used to segregate spaces and not walls. They serve as the backdrop for the registration counter cum bar and beg to be examined and touched. Screens in other patterns and shades are likewise used in other parts of the ground floor — as a means to organize space but at the same time to allow air to freely circulate through the non-air-conditioned area.