Bill Bensley
BENSLEY, is a small atelier of youthful energetic architects, interior designers, artists and landscape architects that know no limits.
We are based in Bangkok and Bali.
Since 1989, BENSLEY has been designing some of the worlds most iconic hotels, resorts, spas, homes and sometimes even palaces.
Tiger doodle
About Bill
Bill Bensley is a jack of all trades… Gardener, fisherman, architect, interior designer, lover of all things natural, and most of all, a wide-ranging explorer of as many corners of the earth as he can.
Raised amidst the orange trees of California, the Harvard Graduate took off for Asia the day after graduation and never looked back. After a few years working in Hong Kong and Singapore, he set up shop in Bangkok in 1989, soon followed by a BENSLEY branch in Bali in 1990.
With a team of 150 interior designers, architects, landscape designers, artists and makers of all things beautiful – as well as his other half Jirachai and their six Jack Russells – BENSLEY has brought to life over 200 resorts, hotels and palaces in 30+ countries, and is on a never-ending quest to create their best work yet.
Over the years BENSLEY has become known as a hotel designer who integrates sustainability into all of his designs, and is now hoping to share this knowledge in the hopes that if the hospitality industry bands together, they might be able to do their bit in reversing climate change.
In High School we had a careers day to help kids like me figure out what the heck we were going to do with our lives. A talk by landscape architect Rocco Campanozzi triggered the lightbulb moment for me. On my invitation, he visited my high school one afternoon with a spectacular slide show of his work at Knotts Berry Farm. This amusement park, like a western Disneyland, was just a stone’s throw from my high school and I had been visiting there since an early age. So the idea of actually getting to design a place that brings on a daily basis so much fun and joy to thousands of people was the lightbulb moment. I knew I had to be a landscape architect. I was smitten, hook line and sinker. I am still in touch with Rocco to this day and often thank him for his time some 42 years ago now. Dad had me down to be a doctor – I never did have the nerve to tell him that the sight of blood made me queasy!
After studying at Cal Poly Pomona and Harvard, I am so glad I made that big leap across the Pacific to Asia in the early 1980s when hospitality development was in its infancy. Doors were opened easily and the opportunities to build were many… still are. I have found that Asia, especially Thailand and Indonesia has given and given and given. At an early age I learnt to speak both languages … that helped a great deal to get ideas across. To this day we maintain design ateliers in Bangkok and Bali.
Bill’s Favourites
For the past 25 years I have been travelling the world like a mad man, sometimes seeing 7 countries in a week, successfully (until COVID-19 hit, that is!).These are some of my favourites from all those adventures…
All favourites
Shinta Mani Loong Bay
Absinthe Bar, Hotel de La Coupole, Sapa
WorldWild China
Sudirman Suites Jakarta
Samurai Camp Okinawa
Ritz Carlton Hainan
Quannan River View Resort China
JW Marriott Zhanjiang China
JW Marriott Jeju
JW Marriott Uluwatu
Intercontinental Khao Yai Station Resort
Capella Hanoi
Four Seasons, Koh Samui
Dorado Beach
Hoshinoya
San Ysidro Ranch
Las Mananitas
Inkaterra
Huka Lodge
Geoffrey Bawa House
Como Shambhala
Barai
Villa Fertrinelli Hotel
Taj Lake Palace
Auberge Du Soleil
The Tsuki Maissonette
The Chinese Room
San Ysidero Ranch
Old Rectory
Junior Suite
Jao Camp
The Corner Suites
The Gardens Suite
Ferragamo Suite
The Ham Yard
Mandarin Oriental Tokyo, By Jeffrey Wilkes
Blakes
The Saxon, Johannesburg, South Africa
Amankora Punakha, Bhutan
Dharmawangsa, Jakarta, Indonesia
JK Place
Agua Hotel Cartagena
Leela Palace
Four Seasons Florence, Italy
Huka Lodge
Grand Hotel A Villa Feltrinelli
La Mamounia
Ballyfin
Amankora Gangtey
Rosewood Case De Sierra
Saffire Freycinet
Awasi Atacama Desert, Chile
Mombo Camp
Hoshinoya
Four Seaons Tented Camp, Chiang Rai
Four Seaons Hangzhou, China
Four Seasons Sayan, Bali
Four Seasons Residences, Indonesia
Four Seasons, Jakarta, Indonesia
Four Seasons Chiang Mai, Thailand
Four Seasons, Hualalai, Hawaii
Four Seasons Koh Samui, Thailand
Four Seasons Langkawi, Malaysia
Shinta Mani Nature Sanctuary, Tmor Rung
Espa, Leela Palace, Udaipur
Opium Spa, The Siam, Bangkok
Royal Kirana Spa, Sayan, Bali
The Spa, Four Seasons, Hangzhou
The Spa, Four Seasons, Chiang Rai
Lanna Spa, Four Seasons, Chiang Mai
Coqoon, Indigo Pearl, Phuket
Jari Menari Spa, Maia, Seychelles
Harnn Heritage, Intercontinental Danang
Spa Botanica, Ritz Reserve, Dorado Beach
The Living Room, Park Hyatt, Siem Reap
Burma Bar, Four Seasons, Chiang Rai
Black Ginger, Indigo Pearl, Phuket
Citron, Intercontinental Danang
Deco Bar, The Siam, Bangkok
La Maison 1888, Intercontinental Danang
Rivet, Indigo Pearl, Phuket
Terraces, Four Seasons, Chiang Mai
Koh, Four Seasons, Koh Samui
The Bensley Bar, Shinta Mani Club
Four Seasons, Langkawi
Maia Seychelles
Four Seasons Tented Camp, Chiang Rai
Intercontinental Danang
The Siam, Bangkok
Shinta Mani Club and Resort, Siem Reap
Park Hyatt, Siem Reap
The Slate Phuket
Four Seasons, Chiang Mai
Four Seasons, Hangzhou
Baan Botanica, Bangkok
Dorado Beach, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve
Four Seasons Hualalai, Hawaii
Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra
Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur
Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur
St.Regis Bali, Nusa Dua
Howie’s Homestay Chiang Mai
May Valley, Seychelles
Keukenhof Garden of Europe
The Butchart Gardens
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
Royal Botanical Garden, Peradeniya
Majorelle Garden, Marrakech
Royal Alcazar Of Seville
Katsura Imperial Villa Gardens
Hever Castle Gardens
Sissinghurst Castle’s Gardens
Roberto Burle Marx Gardens
MOMA New York
Botero Museum
Saatchi Gallery
Ethnological Museum Berlin
Pushkin Museum
Elysium Gallery
Patan Museum
Whitney Museum
Hermitage St.Petersburg
Museum of Cairo
Sir Jon Soane’s Museum
Museo Nacional De Antropologia
Brady Museum
Rudolf Bonnet
Theo Meier
Teng Nee Cheong
Keith Haring
Le Pho
Henri Matisse
Donald Friend
Arie Smit
Auke Sonnega
Andy Warhol
Robert Powell
Kate Spencer
John Underwood
Richard Winkler
Rod Knudslien
Nyoman Masriadi
Marilo Carral
Julio Larraz
Paul Husner
David Collins
Geoffrey Bawa
Isamu Naguchi
Luis Barragan
Jaya Ibrahim
Frank Lloyd Wright
Antoni Gaudi
Michael Taylor
Ricardo Legorreta
Tony Duquette
Yabu + Pushelberg
Tony Chi
Ron Mann
Kit Kemp
Kelly Wearstler
Jeffrey Wilkes
John Saladino
Lek Bunnag
Jacques Garcia
