"This is not some normal project in some paradise where you put some houses on the beach and that's it," says Piero Lissoni, an Italian designer who is just one of an impressive line-up of architects who are creating houses (and hotels and spas) on a 560 acre private island, called Dellis Cay, in the Turks and Caicos archipelago in the Caribbean.

The developers here have had a vision about the type of design they wanted for the villas, spas and Mandarin Oriental Hotels.

"When we established the company, we decided that we wanted to be design driven; to do something different and contemporary. People are more interested in contemporary design now, which you can see in the furniture business," says director and CEO of the O Property Collection, Dr Cem Kinay, a former medical doctor who was born in Turkey.

It was in his home country that he got to know Iraq-born Zaha Hadid, who visited Turkey often. "Zaha used to come there on holiday every year and I knew her through contacts - the world can be very small sometimes."

So naturally he approached her to design some of his villas as well as to masterplan the island.

This isn't just about one-off building design, the whole infrastructure of the island has been taken into account in the project, which involved Arup engineers.

The other architects here are Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield, Carl Ettensperger, Kengo Kuma and Chad Oppenheim.

"We did major research into the architects," says Kinay. "Our team analysed their work and then contacted them and explained the vision."

"It was an interesting challenge," says Lissoni. "To be offered the possibility to design on a Caribbean site with a strong idea of architecture and modernity.

"Some resorts can be a little bit ugly because they are designed in a strange Caribbean style. "All of the architecture here will be modern but we are working with tradition, including traditional materials of wood and stone.

"The hotel will have a wood skin: huge sliding doors that close and open to modify the light and temperature."

Having lots of glass protected with shuttering has certainly worked well over the centuries in his home country.

"Yes, it is traditional in Italy - in Mediterranean houses - but it is also an old Caribbean style and was used in Indonesian colonial houses."

Such innate experience was what the developers were after. "We wanted water villas in one part of the island," says Kinay, "so we started with an architect who had already designed houses in water. Carl Ettensperger, from Singapore, has had 20 years experience of this.

"We looked to the Japanese guys for their different approach, combining Japanese culture with Caribbean flair."

So has collecting buildings by renowned architects become a bit like buying art? "Yes," says Kinay. "Behind it all is the idea of an art collection of different architects who are not only very popular but are also good designers. People want something unique. In the future we want to continue developing this way with the branding of architects."

One person who has said that she prefers to collect property than art is actress Catherine Zeta-Zones who, reliable sources tell me, has bought a property here with husband Michael Douglas.

You would imagine that site visits here must be a pleasure but Lissoni is not so sure. "It's a hell for me. You are there in a paradise with beautiful white sand and fantastic, incredible water and you are working."

For some lucky people, a stay on this island won't involve any work, just a rather beautifully designed escape.

Kengo Kuma and Associates was set up in 1990 and has designed homes, hotels and public buildings as well as the LVMH HQ in Japan 2004. Here he will design villas with their own spa areas and a West Beach Estate house.

"Our architecture is willing to establish a harmonious relationship with the environment and take advantage in the best way of the richness of its landscape," says Kuma. "Buildings will be calm and quiet so as to fit naturally in the location; and the buildings will be placed on the different sites in a gentle way in order to interweave the inside and the outside spaces.

"The water is a very important element in all of our designs. Pools, shallow ponds and reflective water surfaces will bring the natural and environmental qualities of water into the architecture spaces.

"The use of natural and gentle materials and the seeking of transparencies and visual relations will bring the experience of well being of the island into the architecture as well."

David Chipperfield, who set up his own practice in 1984 after having worked for Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, will be designing four-bedroom villas on the north shore of Dellis Cay, with an expansive outdoor living space and fully open skylight.

Each of the villas will have at least 150 feet of ocean frontage with direct access to the channel that connects Dellis Cay and Parrot Cay.

Chipperfield won this year's Stirling Prize for the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach am Neckar, Germany. The building is in a serene style with references to classical architecture that would dovetail with the overall design ideals for this Caribbean island, in which tradition is mixed with a contemporary style.

David Chipperfield Architects will also design one of the houses on the West Beach.

Pritzker prize winning architect Zaha Hadid, who ran an office for years before making the big time, and whose career began to take off with the design of a ski jump in Austria in 1999, has been commissioned to oversee the Dellis Cay Master Plan, as well as to design the futuristic-themed "Marina" Lifestyle Zone, which includes luxury homes, restaurants, boutiques, a marina and a lighthouse.

Her fluid futuristic style is being employed here for its water symbolism. "The continuous, fluid architecture of the marina zone blurs the classic understanding of interior and exterior spaces. Living spaces expand into, and become one with the external landscape, optimising their beachfront location and weaving water and living spaces together," say the architects.

Shigeru Ban, who was born in Tokyo and studied architecture in America, knits wood beautifully as he demonstrated in the Japanese Pavilion at the 2000 Expo in Hanover.

He has also created paper structures and easy-build bamboo refugee shelters which were used after the earthquakes in Kobe, Turkey, India and the Tsunami in Sri Lanka.

"Shigeru is a master of material," says Dr Cem Kinay, of the O Property Group.

Here he is designing villas on the south beach, where the natural vegetation will be left largely intact. These homes will have a main villa and a separate structure surrounded by water linked to the beach via a floating walkway. The master bedroom will extend out over the water

Ban will also design one of the houses on the West Beach which has the island's longest beachfront and the largest villas.

Italian designer Piero Lissoni has created many highly respected pieces from smart hotels to furniture for such esteemed brand names as Alessi, Boffi, Capellini and Cassina.

He will design one West Beach Estate house and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel with residences and beach villas that relate well to the sea and sun.

"The project incorporates a combination of modern technology and exotic local materials to produce a sophisticated and rich design," says the architects.

"Walking through the hotel and residences will be a journey through architecture, nature, new landscape, beautiful swimming pools and breezy outdoor rooms, all set in a Caribbean atmosphere."

The design includes open-air rooms, shady courtyards and sunny patios.