SALT of Palmar Boutique Hotel

Opened in November 2018, SALT  is the first in a new group of hotels conceived by The Lux Collective hospitality group to champion sustainability, connect with the local community and introduce travellers to the real Mauritius.

Following her work creating a mural for LUX* Grand Gaube in 2018, Camille Walala was commissioned to design SALT’s interiors, drawing on the colours and patterns of Mauritius to create a bold and harmonious look that captured the island’s character – fresh, playful and irresistibly positive in outlook.

The hotel was Camille Walala’s first architectural collaboration. The studio worked closely with Mauritian architect John-François Adams to realise her interiors vision for the hotel's 59 bedrooms and its public areas. Starting in January 2018, Camille and her studio team set out to explore the island to find ideas for the SALT colour palette, looking both to the natural landscape and the man-made environment. The resultant palette balances natural hues and Walala's signature pop notes, and features a recurrent motif of black and white stripes.

 Camille also drew on Adams’ local expertise to recruit the area’s most talented craftspeople to design bespoke pieces for the project, including baskets, ceramics and rattan furniture. The culmination of this collaboration between an artist, architect and artisans is a hotel that looks unlike any other on the island.

Architecture: Jean-François Adam

Interior design: Camille Walala