The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort has been nominated for the prestigious 2017 World Interior of the Year Awards, which celebrates innovation in the field of interior design.

A total of 79 projects from across the globe will compete in the prestigious awards ceremony, spanning nine diverse categories, ranging from grand civic spaces and hospitals to transportation hubs, bars and shops.

The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, designed by Singapore-based WOW Architects, is competing for the award from the Hotels category, while The Whale Bar at the resort has been nominated separately in the Bars and Restaurants category.

Hosted alongside the World Architecture Festival (WAF), the awards are part of the INSIDE festival that attracts in excess of 2,000 attendees each year for its three days of talks, awards, exhibitions and fringe events.

All nominees will present their projects to distinguished international juries during the festival to compete for one of the nine category awards. Open to all festival attendees, the presentations are followed by a live exchange between the designers and jurors.

The overall winner of the World Interior of the Year will be announced at an exclusive gala dinner on November 17.

The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, which had earlier won a continental award for the best exterior design at Prix Versailles 2017, is nestled on a private island in the secluded Dhaalu atoll, amidst thriving marine life. Just 40 minutes from the main Velana International Airport by seaplane, guests are transported to a newfound paradise.

Designed with great respect to its natural surroundings, the resort, which opened in November, is surrounded by a large house reef and the island is defined by several distinct ecological areas: lagoon, beach coastal and jungle. At The St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort, guests have the luxury of staying in one of the 77 island and overwater villas, shrouded in lush tropical flora, each with a private pool.

There are six distinct dining venues, including an Asian specialty restaurant, a modern Italian restaurant that features a grand staircase, an underground wine cellar restaurant, a shack style restaurant, a signature overwater bar that rolls out stunning views of dramatic sunset, and a pop-up restaurant in the middle of the resort.

Additionally, guests can also enjoy the Iridium Spa, which presents six overwater treatment rooms, including two that are dedicated to healing Ayurvedic treatments. Spa guests can also enjoy a Blue Hole pool, which contains heated seawater with different water jets – a system with proven benefits to the body.