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PRIVATE Panama A hideaway villa gets its inspiration from the exquisite beach houses of Bali. By Michelle F. Solomon
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rips to Southeast Asia and influences of the beautiful beach houses of Bali are the muses for Casa Naga, an exquisite villa in Playa Bonita, Panama. This is an exclusive hideaway built by a Panamanian businessman, the son of one of the most prominent Panama developers. Wanting to share the atmosphere and surroundings of his private abode, he’s making the 25,000-square-foot retreat available as a vacation rental. “Anyone can book a hotel room, but luxury is getting into someone’s home, living the true experience, and seeing what they consider luxury,” says Herman Bern, Jr., vice president of Product Development of Bern Hotels & Resorts, who built the residence as his beach getaway-from-life in idyllic, yet hectic, Panama City. “The vision came from a pleasure trip to Bali in 2010. When I went and looked at the homes there, I thought that the setting felt familiar.” Bern says he has grabbed escape time at the hideaway since its completion last January, but when he’s traveling or residing at his main residence, he wants the property to be enjoyed. Perched on a cliff at the edge of a rainforest — with the Pacific Ocean as its central focus — the seven-suite villa, Casa Naga, translates from Indonesian into “Dragon House.” Interior designer James Derry says the atmosphere of the villa is a “bit more glamorous and sophisticated than a rambling country house. The space is created for those who appreciate elegance,” says the English designer, who says he “went for a look that had much texture, but not too much color.”
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Wide open spaces are a signature with exquisite 50-foot ceilings. “I wanted there to be a ‘wow’ factor — for it to be an experience — so we went for these extremely high ceilings,” says Bern. Derry admits the ceilings were a bit of a challenge. “I had to make sure each individual area felt comfortable. With these high ceilings, it could be easy to feel like you’re lost.” Derry’s use of indirect lighting was a way to make the environment softer and cozier. The home fits into its natural surroundings, blurring the line where the villa ends and the grounds around it begin. Ocean breezes waft through the open space of the house. “It’s what we wanted to capture,” says Derry. Nature doesn’t just enter the house from the outside; the walls and floors don’t fight nature — they surrender to it. “The idea behind the house was for it to be eco-friendly and to use as many natural products from Panama as possible,” according to Bern. Panamanian artisans did much of the detail work, including floor carvings in the home’s main room. “I wanted to get away from the white, modern steel and create a look that emphasized stone and wood,” he says. Most striking is the use of a special type of wood. An antique, hand-carved wooden chair is more comfortable than it looks; it is carved from Cumaru, a rare local wood reclaimed from Lake Bayano, buried there when the original canal of Panama was created. In 1913, when President Theodore Roosevelt dammed the Chagres River in Panama, an old-growth jungle flooded.