Built in 1962 as a private retreat for King Norodom Sihanouk — a place to house his most distinguished guests, among them Charles de Gaulle and Jackie Kennedy — the low-slung villa compound on the edge of Siem Reap's Royal Gardens carries a history that most hotels could only invent. Aman converted it into Amansara in 2002, working with Kerry Hill Architects to strip the mid-century Khmer modernist structure back to its essential geometry: cream rendered walls, flat rooflines, and a circular pavilion whose iridescent tiled dome is visible across the pool terrace and anchors the property's compositional centre. The interiors pursue a discipline that suits both the architecture and its Angkorian context. Dark-stained timber joinery panels every bedroom wall from floor to ceiling, set against white plaster and sisal rugs, with rattan pendant shades and ebonised armchairs in the manner of vintage Danish tropical furniture. Bas-relief panels depicting the sacred tree of Khmer iconography hang as the sole decorative gesture in otherwise spare rooms. The circular dining pavilion — its rubble-stone columns alternating with folded glass screens that open entirely to the garden — shares the same palette of dark wood, woven shades, and polished concrete floors. With just 24 suites across a single storey, Amansara maintains the atmosphere of a private residence rather than a resort, the bamboo groves and dark reflecting pools completing an effect closer to contemplative sanctuary than conventional hotel.

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