01
The brief
Shams Hotels & Resorts is a resort of approximately 24,000 m² on the Red Sea coast south of Marsa Alam, with around 160 sea-view rooms. NoVi's commission was the interior design of 1,300 m² of its interiors, developed around a concept that brings three references together: Mediterranean, Wabi-Sabi and refined rustic.
NoVi's revamp presentation for the Shams Alam Hotel sets the work out in four parts, each with furniture plans and 3D render shots: the guest rooms, in three types — rooms with a vaulted ceiling, a domed ceiling and a flat ceiling — the reception, the restaurant, and a multi-purpose area.
02
The challenge
A coastal resort asks its interiors to hold on to the setting rather than compete with it. Sun, salt air and sand shape how interiors are used and how they age, and guests move constantly between shaded rooms and bright outdoor spaces. Combining several stylistic references adds a further test: each must stay legible, yet the whole has to read as one calm, coherent place rather than a collection of themes.
A revamp adds its own constraint: the new interiors have to work within an existing building. Guest rooms that come with different ceilings — vaults, domes and flat slabs — each need their own layout, while still feeling like one hotel.
03
Our approach
The three references complement one another. Mediterranean design is associated with light, openness and an easy relationship with the outdoors; Wabi-Sabi values natural texture, imperfection and restraint; refined rustic brings the warmth of honest, crafted materials without losing polish. NoVi's interior design team developed the 1,300 m² within that combined direction, so that the interiors share one mood and sit quietly within the wider resort.
The renders show that direction in material form. Exposed brick vaults and domes are set against soft lime-plaster walls, with timber beams, rattan pendants, rope and woven textures, and travertine and stone floors. In the reception, arched niches in patterned timber frame low seating around a fireplace beneath a brick dome; the restaurant becomes a sequence of plastered arches over timber and cane furniture; and the guest rooms pair built-in plaster benches and arched niches with linen, timber and woven lamps.
