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Wild, Wild World

Bill Bensley’s ambitious World Wild project fuses zoo, hotel and wildlife preserve – but not how you might expect.

Throughout a career that has seen him design some 200 projects, architect and environmentalist Bill Bensley has used hospitality as a vehicle for change. At Shinta Mani Wild – a south Cambodian resort fusing luxury and conservation efforts – his work sees the hotel striving to protect the surrounding river valley ecosystem whilst inviting guests along for ranger walks to rescue snared critters. Not content with defending our furry, scaled, and winged friends on a local level however, Bensley is expanding his efforts and taking the cause to China’s multi-billiondollar animal industries. Under the World Wild banner, the designer has planned a series of wildlife sanctuaries in Asia, Africa and Australia featuring high-end hotels at their core, with a vision to save and protect thousands of animals from China’s roadside zoos and traditional medicine industries. “I want to set an example in China in the areas of wildlife conservation and animal welfare,” Bensley writes in an open letter. “I recognise that China is changing, and I want to help fuel that positive change on behalf of the voiceless – our planet’s precious flora and fauna.” The initial plan involves the development of 2,400 guestrooms in a section of the 5,000-hectare World Wild Guangdong release site, with the hotel providing a source of funds for the sanctuary to operate. Flipping the zoo concept on its head, the animals will be free to roam the dedicated sanctuary whilst guests are housed within one of the designer’s typically outlandish projects. Whilst not technically a human zoo by name, any animals looking in on this curious exhibit might argue differently.

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