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MADE-TO-MEASURE LUXURY HOTEL MANAGEMENT, REPRESENTATION, MARKETING & BRANDING
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Editorial
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n this issue, we put the focus on The Clean Art of Building Eco. The projects we showcase here were conceived by some of the worlds finest architects whom we are privileged to count as our HoteliersGuild supporting members.
Matteo Thun is, of course, world renowned for his Botanical Architecture that makes houses disappear, as they become an integral part of the land. Be it in a city, mountain or sea, his architecture is about consistency using local and natural materials such as wood and stone. Louis Thompson & Olav Bruin and their team at Nomadic Resorts create sustainable resorts and residential projects that reflect a true sense of place and fit organically into their natural surroundings as they believe that designs should serve as a bridge to connect nature, culture and people.
Frank M. Pfaller Publisher President HoteliersGuild
Elora Hardy, whose innovative use of bamboo in Ubud, Bali, has already drawn global attention. Her futuristic, eco-friendly structures impact the way architects think about building materials. Luca Franco of Luxury Frontiers, who takes tented camps design and experimental lodging to yet another ‘Beyond Luxury’ level. Bill Bensley, the wild master of DISRUPTION, DEVOTION AND MINIMAL INTERVENTION is constantly challenging the status quo, as he is driven by the way people think about hotels. Whilst their designs are uniquely differentiating, they have one thing in common: They go the very extra mile for the good of the environment, some including either geothermal or solar energy, biomass heating or natural air-conditioning by specialised ventilation systems to farm-totable food programs. And of course, they all offer Sustainability Without Sacrificing Luxury. Enjoy & be inspired!
Title Page
NomadicResorts Matteo Thun & Partners - Waldhaus | Switzerland
MADE-TO-MEASURE LUXURY HOTEL MANAGEMENT, REPRESENTATION, MARKETING & BRANDING
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Content
16 | 36
Nomadic Resorts - Experimental Eco Lodging | Cocoon Suites & Urchin Pods
40 | 49
MATTEOTHUN BOTANICAL DESIGN Designs inspired by timeless simplicity and centred on the human scale
52 | 59
LUXURYFRONTIERS BEYOND LUXURY With an eye on tented and
 light-on-earth architecture
62 | 69
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ELORAHARDY BAMBOO DREAMS
BILLBENSLEY BORN-to-be-WILD
Designing magical spaces, inspired by nature.
The go-to for eco luxurious inspired design in Southeast Asia,
92 | 95
COMBATCLIMATECHANGE itMustBeNOW! Our joint call to urgent action to hoteliers
From around the globe
Reflecting Personalities From top to bottom: ShintaManiWild/Bill Bensley; WildCoast Tented Cam/Nomadic Resorts; (right) CAMP SARIKA BY AMANGIRI/Luxury Frontiers; Vigilius Mountain Resort/Matteo Thun; Ananda House/Elora Hardy/Ibuku (right)
Matteo Thun “Rather than forcing it to grow where it does not belong, we pay tribute to nature and leave it to develop naturally. We see nature as an integral part in our architecture and interior design and call it botanical architecture.Natural stone, wood and green areas - both inside and outside characterise our work”
Louis Thompson & Olav Bruin “Our design approach is inspired by the Genius Loci or spirit of the place – we strive to identify the physical characteristics, geological features, native vegetation, natural energy flows and traditional migration patterns particular to the area,”
Elora hardy „Bamboo is a promise to the kids. It’s one sustainable material that they will not run out of. And when I first saw these structures under construction, I just thought, this makes perfect sense…Why hasn’t this happened sooner, and what can we do with it next?”
Bill Bensley „For me, being an environmentalist is a lifelong practice—it’s not some newfound greenwash…”
Luca Franco “Camp Sarika embodies the key principles of Luxury Frontiers’ approach to design by providing an architectural platform that complements the guests’ experience of the surrounding nature. In essence, it’s the union of nature and architecture,”
5 Reasons why
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Sustainable Architecture & Design Experimental Eco
Lodging and Minimal Intervention
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Luxury was once a domain detached from sustainability. Now, a shift in our behaviour is imperative.
NomadicResorts
1 Louis Thompson & Olav Bruin
animal? by Louis Thompson & Olav Bruin Over the recent years we have heard a barrage of buzzwords used to describe our work - biophilic, organic, regenerative, biomorphic, sustainable - each of the concepts is, in its own way, relevant and useful; but in reality these terms have all been coined by the design press to try to capture an unconventional approach to hospitality design, that is in many ways, intangible. What we truly aspire to, is a timeless way of building that offers guests an opportunity to tune into the vast pulling harmony so elegantly evoked by Aldo Leopold. Nomadic Resorts design approach is inspired ty the Genius Loci of spirit to the place - we strive to identify the physical characteristics, geological features, native vegetation, natural energy flows and traditional migration patterns particularly to the area to gain an understanding of what makes the place biologically special. In parallel, we look at the wider context of the project to understand the historical land use, indigenous culture, vernacular architecture and traditional building materials of the area to understand the dynamic between man and nature. Our concepts often combine the ancient knowledge of passive design from traditional, local builders with the technical requirements of the operator and organic shapes inspired by natural forms from the site. This strategy allows us to create contemporary looking buildings that function passively, using significantly less energy for lighting and cooling.
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‘This song of the waters is audible to every
ear, but there is other music in these hills, by no means audible to all. On a still night, when the campfire is low and the Pleiades have climbed over rimrocks, sit quietly and listen, and think hard of everything you have seen and tried to understand. Then you may hear it - a vast pulsing harmony its score inscribed on a thousand hills, its notes the lives and deaths of plants and animals, its rhythms spanning the seconds and the centuries. ‘ Aldo Leopold
vegetable? During the design development phase we combine the use of natural building materials with appropriate modern building techniques to ensure that we respect the building aesthetics, without compromising the durability of the structure. As you will see in the following pages the source of the concepts varies widely - from the cantilevered structure of a saprophytic fungi on a tree trunk to the ovate, aerodynamic form of a seed. By contrast our integrated design process aims to uncover the needs, aspirations, dreams and concerns of the stakeholders. We consider the term stakeholder in the broadest possible sense -obviously the opinions of land owners, investors, operators, developers and consultants are paramount to create a coherent design brief to give the project its overall direction and financial parameters, but for us the term also includes members of the local community, as well as the land’s existing inhabitants - plants, animals, insects and even fungi. This may initially seem to be an outlandish prospect, but the reality is that the biotic and final guest experience. Design decisions relain to the site’s protection at this early stage can have a massive impact on the final product - a sensitive strategy could result in clouds of migrating butterflies enchanting guests, while a more aggressive approach could result in an ecological wasteland that will take decades to recover. As our understanding of eco-system management improves and our ability to process data evolves we can can now regenerate landscapes to enhance the final experience creating biophilic spaces that celebrate the biological value of the site.
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Dreams ild
Mineral
Wild Coast Tented
Lodge In many ways the realization of Wild Coast Tented Lodge encapsulates both our design philosophy and our approach to sustainability: our team had a very broad scope of work for the project, including the architecture, landscape, interiors and the initial mechanical and electrical design. As a result we had a fantastic opportunity to work with an integrated team of designers, aligned with the project goals. The site is located in the buffer zone of Yala National Park, which is famous for its population of leopards, elephants, bears and crocodiles. On our initial site visit, the rocky outcrops along the coastline provided us with the initial inspiration for the main area buildings. Positioned at either end of the site, the main facilities
are organised as outcrops of boulder-like pavilions clustered organically together. Larger open air volumes intersect with smaller enclosed domes that house more private functions. From afar, the large pavilions appear solid but on closer inspection, they’re revealed as light, open structures. Their vaulted construction is crafted from a woven grid shell bamboo structure clad in reclaimed teak shingles. Large, arched openings and high vaulted ceilings create a strong sense of space while concentric ventilation slits help reduce the volumes to a more human scale As the shingles weather, the buildings will age gracefully over time, and gain a patina that naturally complements the surrounding stone. By night, the illuminated pavilions appear as navigational landmarks - the enclosed structures are lit from the outside, while the open structures are illuminated from within, creating an inviting glow. This effect is accentuated by striking rings of light from LED strips that line the ventilation openings
Whereas the architecture focuses on the outer form of the boulders, the interior recalls the treasures concealed within them such as caves, crystals and veins of precious minerals. Capturing a sense of discovery, adventure and enchantment, the interior combines ecological luxury and local elegance with a contemporary edge. Echoing the context of the site, local materials such as stone, quartz and mud brick are paired with a rich palette of copper, brass, terrazzo, wood, bamboo and textiles. A strong focus is placed on high quality materials that age gracefully. Sculptural light installations punctuate the main spaces.
Insect
Looper
The Looper is a luxury tented suite inspired by the form of a caterpillar’s cocoon. The cocoon is in many ways the symbol of metamorphosis – a magical natural process by which a caterpillar transforms into a moth by essentially dissolving itself into imaginal cells, which are then reassembled to form a creature with an entirely different physical form. Needless to say the process is a rich source of allegory and has been used as a literary device to describe spiritual and physical transformations from Ovid to Kafka. The design of the Looper was a metamorphic process for us as designers – our aim was to view the project using an entirely different lens from traditional hospitality architecture – rather than creating a permanent structure that dominates the surrounding environment, and exudes luxury; we aimed to create a lightweight structure, integrated into its surroundings, that could be built quickly and efficiently, but at the end of its life could be disassembled, removed and recycled to be reborn in a new physical form, in much the same way as our humble caterpillar. The challenge was to create an envelope that was both physically resistant to extreme weather events and thermally efficient yet extremely durable. The arched orthogonal structure of the Looper uses a small volume of structural material to enclose a large internal volume with the highest quality architectural fabrics; it is engineered to resist wind speeds of 140 km/h by one of the leading membrane engineering firms in the world. The small volume of recyclable materials used to achieve this performance means that the overall life cycle analysis is significantly lower than a traditional building of a similar size.
Between the outer tensioned membrane and the interior liner we included a 70mm layer of insulation to ensure that the space could be efficiently heated or cooled depending on the climate and the season allowing us to use the Looper in a wide range of applications –it can be adapted for a snow covered mountain slope or an arid desert landscape. The front and rear facades of the structure are double glazed with a low-e coating so they provide abundant natural light and a strong physical connection to the outdoors without compromising the thermal comfort, physical security or the acoustic privacy of the guests.
The interior includes a generous bedroom, a fully functioning en-suite bathroom with a standalone copper bathtub, a desk area and an outdoor living deck. For our project in Sri Lanka we focussed on high quality finishes and fixtures- copper, oiled teak and brass fitting help to create a steampunk atmosphere that harks back to the works of Jules Verne.
Evolution
Fungal
Treetop dining
The Nomadic Resorts journey began on a steep, forested hillside overlooking the Gulf of Siam, on the island of Ko Kut in Eastern Thailand in 2007. The brief we had been given by Sonu Shivdasani, founder of Six Senses and Soneva Resorts, was to design a treehouse dining pod that gave guests the opportunity to enjoy a gastronomic experience immersed in the rainforest canopy surrounded by epiphytic ferns, without compromising the integrity of the tropical forest. At this time, the notions of experiential tourism and biophilic design were in their infancy and it is a testament to Sonu’s radical approach to hospitality and sustainability, that the project came to fruition. The form of the dining pod is inspired by the cantilevered structure of saprophytic fungi that grow laterally out of tree trunks. The cap or roof structure is suspended 14m above the forest floor on spider’s web of stainless steel cables that are attached to ten of the largest trees in the forest. No nails, bolts or buckles were used to protect the trees from insect infestation and disease. Within the roof structure are 6 stainless steel cables – the cables are attached to the corners of the woven cradle , and loop back through pulleys in the roof then lead back to an elevator winch hidden in the forest. The cradle can therefore be lowered down to ground level or raised back into the canopy at will. Guests access the pod at ground level, once they are comfortably seated, they are hoisted gently up to the platform on the main supporting tree 11m above the forest floor. The waiters access the pod via ziplines and serve the guests their meal from the platform. The treetop dining pod has now been operational for ten years and is in many ways a milestone of experiential tourism. The treetop dining pod was one of several unique structures that we built at the resort – another iconic structure is The Den, the kids club of the resort – a Manta Ray shaped building made entirely from Dendroclamus Asper bamboo.
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ustainability is the DNA of the group and for the hotels I would like to do a sort of retrospective of our projects: the treetop dining pod and Kids Den projects at Soneva Kiri to discuss biomimicry and biophilic design and how we launched the company, Tri Lanka and Wild Coast tented lodge in Sri Lanka as both projects illustrate different c o n c e p t s o f s u s ta i n a b i l i t y a n d t h e r m a l performance using different styles in the same destination; and if possible I would also like to mention some of our new projects and the uber lightweight holy grail of sustainable design - the seedpod which is our zero footprint pop up tent in Mauritius, and The Cove project in India where we have recently completed a new mock up tent combining tent and bamboo (questions on bamboo are obviously very welcome)...ideally I'd like to finish with the future of sustainable design, community collaboration and new technologies.
Elemental.
Mountain Restaurant
The Ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles held that water is one of the four classical elements along with fire, earth and air; but it was water that was regarded as the ylem, or basic substance of the universe. 1500 years later Science has to some extent confirmed this view; the main components of water: hydrogen and oxygen, are among the most abundant elements in the universe. It has been discovered in interstellar clouds throughout our galaxy; and it seems that much of the universe’s water is produced as a byproduct of star formation. It is one of the critical components that permits life – it is the very essence of magic and the source of inspiration for our latest spa resort project in the misty mountains of Taiwan.
The concept of the restaurant for this project investigates the various forms that water can take both in its fluid and static forms – the design is based on the concentric ripples produced on water’s surface when an object is dropped into it, the resulting rings are reconfigured from their typical concentric forms to amore random association of circular structures. The landscaping surrounding the buildings investigates the ways water can be harnessed and channelled into internal garden spaces and natural pools. Each of these rings offers different dining opportunities for private groups and individuals. The serene teahouse is located in the centre of a placid lake offering guests an opportunity for meditation and contemplation. To be asked to develop an Onsen style wellness retreat was an honour for us – the simplicity and elegance of traditional Japanese Ryokans featuring tatami flooring and sliding shoji screens have always appealed to our aesthetic; while the creation of rock pools and ponds is a fascinating challenge.
Many of these inns have been operational for over a thousand years – the oldest existing hotels in the world – one must therefore assume, that their appeal is timeless. The values of the project allow us to focus on simplicity, mindfulness and healing, offering us an opportunity to explore biophilic design and man’s relationship with nature. We have had the honour of working with some of the most inspirational hospitality groups and hotel owners in the world. They have offered us a great deal of creative freedom, taught us some valuable lessons and allowed us to pursue projects, more traditional groups would have eschewed. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their friendship, faith and vision. Our work continues, and we have some extraordinary new projects in the pipeline –each has its own personality and appeals to specific passions – our waterfall retreat in Sri Lanka with Luxury Frontiers was, in many ways, an opportunity to express our love of falling water in an extraordinary location high in Sri Lanka’s tea country.
Our permaculture based tented retreat on a private cove in Karnataka, India illustrates a new approach to sustainability allowing guests to explore the unique mangrove eco-system in traditional boats, pick their own vegetables in the greenhouse dining outlet, or dine out on a cliff top ledge overlooking the ocean. Our kite-surfing, treetop lodge in Mauritius satisfies a passion for adventure sports and wellness with a new approach to social inclusion by incorporating an annual festival celebrating traditional creole music and dance and prioritizing local employment in one of the islands most iconic locations. In our next phase of development we plan to expand our services further by launching our latest venture Nomadic Escapes– a tented camp management company specifically focussed on wellness, adventure sports and sustainability. The project has taken several years of preparation, but we have now assembled a team of outstanding individuals and have two exceptional sites for our first camps. For more information and development opportunities please visit www.nomadic-escapes.com
HG SERIES
Interview with Louis Thompson CEO & FOUNDER OF
NOMADIC RESORTS
HoteliersGuild
Q: If you had to describe your personality in three words, what you’d say? A: Dedicated, determined, and idealistic (but I’m sure my wife would come up with a few other options) Q: LUXURY as it relates to our genre and as we knew it say 20 years ago - is it dead? A: I don’t really like the term luxury – it carries an association of excessive consumption that is, for me, inherently at odds with the principals of sustainability. The notion of luxury, is for me at least, subjective and as a result, an individual’s perception of luxury, depends to a large degree on your socio-economic background and personal situation – if you live in an apartment next to a railway, a quiet night’s sleep could be a luxury. I do however believe that comfort is important - in an increasingly frantic environment quiet, privacy, space and wholesome food are critical for human wellbeing. To my mind exclusive experiences are a different matter – we consider ourselves experience designers and this is a major focus of our design work.
impressed by some of the new evolutions such as Azulik in Tulum which have a more Bohemian, artistic atmosphere. I think I would feel more at home there. Q: What’s so fascinating about your work? A: I think it’s the interactions – the use of natural materials, the relationship with the site materials and collaboration with local craftsmen. Q: What do you enjoy the most? A: Watching a complex bamboo structure go up. Q: What do you enjoy the least? A: Discussions with flakey quantity surveyors Q: Your biggest weakness? A: I take things personally – for me each project is a labor of love and a personal mission.
Q: The biggest mistake made in your career? Q: You are both, a professional hotelier AND an architect - how come? A: Creating a natural swimming pool in a snake filled jungle….the frogs A: This is a little bit of a complex story – though I studied hotel management thought I had made it for them, and the snakes saw it as a frog buffet. and architecture; I am essentially a gardener. Since childhood I have been always involved in gardening, Q: Which sustainable related issues do you/your family landscaping and permaculture design and this was the pay most attention to in your personal daily life? subject of my thesis for my hospitality diploma. As a result A: Plastic waste – my wife is militant about it and I believe of this passion I was recruited by Sonu Shivdasani to help single use plastics are a crime against the environment. them with one of the first farm to fork concepts for Soneva Q: Who had influenced you the most in your professional in the Maldives. Unfortunately the vegetable garden was life? washed away in the 2004 Tsunami (which was a bit surreal) A: Sonu Shivdansani –he has been a pioneer for years and and I was recruited by the project team to assist them with has remained brave and committed despite taking some the reconstruction of Soneva Gili. As the years went by I C o m m i t m e n t , hard knocks. became more and more involved in the sustainability team for Soneva and Six Senses focused on special projects, organization and Q: Your favourable sustainable hotel for a stay with your green building and edible landscaping. From that point on I family? was increasingly involved in design and construction, and realism. With the A: We live in Mauritius, so we’d go for something cool – met my partner Olav on the Treetop dining project at the Treehotel in Sweden or a hiking experience in Soneva Kiri increased number maybe the Himalayas (Six Senses Bhutan?) Q: If you had a wish for a dream hospitality project of online reviews Q: How do you wire Local Communities into your what, why & where? A: I believe that hospitality is in a state of flux and that a the margin for error projects? A: In many of our projects we are actively involved in the new type of resort focused on adventure sports, sustainability, community and wellness will develop over has decreased, and construction process (at Wild Coast Tented Lodge we were contractors for the tents and bamboo structures and we the years to come. Ideally I would like to develop a core resort that offers outstanding water sports on a beach site, the level of stress managed the construction of the Den and the Treetop dining at Soneva Kiri). We believe that by incorporating the complimented by a satellite hiking camp in the highlands local community into the construction team, as opposed to and a waterfall retreat for the final stage of the journey. has increased relying exclusively on large contractors, the project The site we are developing here in Mauritius would be an becomes an extension of that community and culture. To ideal location. achieve this synergy we have often created teams of local workers and craftsmen with specialist international consultants. This can Q: What is YOUR biggest sustainability challenge? make quite an entertaining contrast – in Sri Lanka our bamboo consultant A: Air-conditioning. For me this is one of the most important challenges in had long hair and a lot of tattoos (he could have been mistaken for a member the hospitality industry– we have become addicted to coolth and we of a hard rock band) whereas the conservative local Muslim fishermen had a automatically assume the only way to achieve thermal comfort is using very different sense of style – over the months of solidarity and shared mechanical HVAC. I believe this is a fallacy- passive design, good insulation experience strong emotional bonds grow between the team members and it and effective use of fans are all far less energy intensive solutions, that allow is a real pleasure to see the interactions between different cultures in a guests to connect with their surroundings in a more healthy manner. We creative environment – it often gives rise to new ideas and material uses. need to be braver on this issue – and be ready to adapt to our approach to natural ventilation. Q: What are the three essential ingredients for a resort opening? A: Commitment, organization and realism. With the increased number of Q: One past or living architect and/or designer do you admire the most? online reviews the margin for error has decreased, and the level of stress has A: Of the deceased Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller and Zaha Hadid all increased. spring to mind and there are many current architects that I admire – Vo Trong Nghia, Thomas Heatherwick, Snohetta, Bill Bensley and Shigeru Ban are Q: If you had a chance to address world leaders in their (non) efforts for exceptional designers but I think I admire my partner Olav Bruin the most – I climate change, what would you tell them? believe that he has a rare sensitivity and humility, that is reflected in our A: Grow up. buildings and that his work will be increasingly recognized over the years to come. Q: What in your opinion are the most pressing sustainability issues facing architecture & design in today’s hospitality industry? Q: Which hospitality projects apart from your own do you like best? A: I think Soneva Fushi has to be up there, due to Sonu’s lifelong commitment to the property and the sustainable luxury cause, but I am also deeply
3 Ingredients for a resort
opening are?
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A: large multi-storey concrete blocks that won’t be able to adapt to future changes in the industry may become redundant and need to be taken down while they are technically able to last for centuries. Q: We know that many hoteliers & developers still have a long way to go do you believe that your colleagues care enough about sustainability? A: Over the past decade, it has been the boutique hotels and smaller hotel groups that have been leading the way, but now we finally see some of the larger more traditional hotel groups opening their eyes as well with some first attempts in the right direction. It will be fascinating to see how they can retrofit existing assets to meet new guest expectations. Q: Have you had to decline projects because of their sustainability as you understand it and your advice to colleagues? A: Unfortunately yes. As a relatively new kid on the block it is important to us to position ourselves strongly in specific segments so we have declined several projects – either due to concerns about their sustainability objectives or simply because their vision was incompatible with our values Q: Quite some of your projects embrace the idea of “pods” and the “village”. Where did that come from? A: One of our main criticisms of traditional resort models is the lack of community within the resort and the relationship between the resort and local communities – we use the term village to indicate how we would like to see a merge of front of house, back of house and local communities. We use the term pod largely because engineered tensile membrane structures are quite different from canvas tents – both in terms of performance and durability.
Q: Is wood and bamboo still the symbolic material of sustainable architecture? Which other materials, I.e. clay, straw or else are you using? A: Very much so. Over the years I have become something of a natural building polymath – I have worked with bamboo, traditional timber framing, stone, mud bricks, cob, wattle and daube…I’d also like to try my hand at superadobe at some point. Q: How would you explicate the importance of Sustainability as an overriding topic in your creations? A: For us sustainability needs to be one of the foundations of each project, so it is really part of the DNA of each new venture – it is so much easier to make the correct decisions at the start of the project, rather than retrofitting existing buildings. I often feel sorry for General Managers who are asked to improve energy efficiency when fundamental design errors represent a real obstacle. Q: Explain your affinity to Bamboo & opportunities for its future use? A: ‘Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times’ (Ping Fu) For us bamboo is the grass of the Gods – it has endless uses and applications – in the future I expect to see advanced bamboo technical fabrics (maybe even for tents!), curved bamboo laminated beams and of course lots of potential uses to replace singe use plastics. I also wear bamboo t-shirts, socks and even underwear – without bamboo I would be naked. Q: Can you somewhat define your credo of Organic, Holistic and Inclusive design approach? Organic We derives our inspiration from the natural environment that surrounds us, we strive to create designs that celebrate biodiversity, compliment the natural features of the sites we build on, and respect the natural forms of the place. Holistic We follow a Biophilic approach integrating both vernacular and innovative materials and products, resulting in holistic design solutions. Biophilic
design seeks to connect our inherent need to affiliate with nature in the modern built environment. Inclusive We are thirsty to learn new methods and approaches and are happy to share our skills and knowledge with others. We create positive projects in collaboration with the communities we work in. Q: You design tented camps, resorts and wellness centres. How are these types of building connected? What will your ideal sustainable luxury retreat look like? A: I think all three typologies are based on the creation of a paradise like environment – this is for me a sacred purpose and a moral duty. I don’t know yet but I’ll send you a picture when I build it. Q: Your greatest professional achievement so far? A: The installation of the treetop dining pod – I was only about 30 at the time and it was a fairly major technical undertaking for a ‘noob’. Q: Do you think it’s important for ‘eco-luxury architecture’ colleagues of yours to prove they are sustainable, rather than just say they are? A: Words are wind, I put more trust in deeds.
Q: What in your opinion is the most pressing sustainability issue facing the travel industry today? A: Carbon emissions associated with air travel but I don’t have a quick fix solution. Q: Luxury travel is changing very quickly - where do you see its future post Greta? A: I think that wellness travel will come to dominate the travel sector generally – increasing levels of pollution, stress, and digital overload are causing generalized mental health issues. People want to escape their everyday reality, escape to an informal relaxing space and feel better in a sustainable environment. Conventional hospitality brands are going to find the transition very difficult as their existing assets are not adapted to changing demands– which may explain why they are buying up smaller brands. Q: What are your forthcoming architectural projects due for completion? A: Our next opening will most likely be The Cove in India in 2021, but we may also open the first phase of our first Nomadic Escape at Le Morne in the same year. We also have several fascinating projects we are doing for some leading hotel brands (notably something very exciting is going to enter a lagoon in the Maldives) which will be open earlier but we aren’t allowed to say more…sorry Q: Do you have any advice for our HoteliersGuild members and our readers in general? A: Be prepared for change…new business models, new work patterns, new expectations and an increasingly unpredictable economic environment. Everything else has gone mobile, so will the hospitality industry.
Photo by Robert Green
the"original"in"barefoot luxury Multi-bedroom villas hidden among dense foliage within touching distance of their own beach and a pristine coral reef protected and recognised by UNESCO. Intuitive service is provided by Mr./Ms. Friday butlers who know what you want before you want it. Every visit makes you feel young again - no matter what age. Watching movies in Cinema Paradiso, counting Saturn’s rings in the Observatory. Deciding between sixty flavours of ice cream. Eleven types of pillow. Five hundred different wines. Three to nine bedroom villas. And nine dining options too. If the experiences are magical, the philosophy is simple: No news, no shoes. No pretensions either. Intelligent Luxury is all about creating unforgettable, enlightening experiences of SLOW LIFE*. *Sustainable, Local, Organic, Wellness - Learning, Inspiring, Fun, Experiences
Baa Atoll, Republic of Maldives T:+960 660 0304 E: reservations-fushi@soneva.com
www.soneva.com
Celebrating Louis Thompson & Olav Bruin Designs | NomadicResorts
2 Matteo Thun & Partners
Waldhaus at The BČ•rgenstock Hotels & Resorts, Switzerland
atteo Thun, HoteliersGuild’s Ambassador for Sustainable Architecture & Design is driven by a holistic approach to nature and wellness. Award-winning South Tyrollean architect Matteo, an esteemed member of the Architect and Interior Design Hall of Fame member, is a co-founder of the iconic Italian design and architecture collective the Memphis Group with Ettore Sottsass.
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Maintaining a sensitive approach to the client’s vision, the studio believes in trust and longterm relationships. Seeking change without giving up traditional values, the teams operate in line with the industry’s trends. Authentic creativity and the constant search for technologically innovative solutions are as important as the experience in dealing with flexible budgets and cost engineering. A profound respect for the soul of the place and a sensitive approach to the brand’s individuality is key for the teams of 70 architects, interior, product and graphic designers who work from micro to macro, are interdisciplinary and highly qualified in the management of complex projects. Their work focuses on aesthetic durability, technological longevity, and the future lifespan of buildings and products.
Davines Village
Botanical In 2001 he formed his own studio Matteo Thun & Partners. Matteo admits that he is happiest designing something new, and he is his firm’s creative. From his headquarters in Milan and an office in Shanghai, he and his team are responsible for a long list of high-profile international hospitality and healthcare projects.
Architecture
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Last summer saw the reassembly of Thun’s temporary beach structure, Cala Beach Club at the renowned Cala di Volpe Hotel which is of course the quintessence of the unique magic that has made Costa Smeralda the most glamorous natural playground in the Mediterranean. More importantly, Cala Beach Club is an environmentally sensitive structure only accessible by foot or boat!
“Cala di Volpe is a beautiful beach in Sardinia. We wanted to create a shady oasis just between the woods and the sea. Restaurant, bar, and treatment rooms have been designed to melt within the landscape, to respect the charm of this special place. This property is reachable only by boat or on a path through nature. Since it serves only for the season, we designed a removable structure that is easily to assemble and dismantle. The structure unites with the beach vegetation, terraces value the inclination of the land, and views are open to the sea. We only used natural materials that integrate with the surroundings, such as chestnut wood and bamboo. All colors are natural and warm.
“
Waldkliniken Eisenberg outside o
of Leipzig, Germany
On other recent projects recently completed:
“We like to bring nature inside and believe in concepts that emphasize an overall healthy lifestyle as a main approach. Healthy architecture and interior design guarantees physical and mental well being, allowing a relationship between humans and the environment. In Obbürgen, Switzerland, the Waldhotel at Bürgenstock Hotels & Resort, which opened at the end of last year, is a space for wellness and medical services. It’s made from local stone and wood, and nature will take over in a few years so that the building will melt with the mountain. As with most of our projects, we also designed the entire interior. Another recent project is the new headquarters for Davines, an Italian beauty company dedicated to sustainability and based in Parma, Italy. Here, we grouped traditional rural shapes and innovative volumes around a greenhouse that serves as a restaurant for the employees. Maximum architectural transparency with a minimum amount of masonry elements provides every working station with a view of the green areas “
On the influence on his overall appr
“
In Italy, architec
holistically. Let me quo writer Ernesto Roge city.' This means work lighting product, and o time. We’ve worked like the beginning, and th architects, interior de designers perform acro
Another big strength is At Salone del Mobile wood chair collectio Levaggi, a small manufa and work regularly w from Murano, such as V and Seguso. We very mu Italy.
I admire Ettore Sottsa Olivetti. I first worked f then we formed Sottsas we co-founded Italian d collective Memphis Gr important formative in and provided a platfor the challenges of const designed the first Ital late 1950s. Golf Village | Club House
of Italian design roach :
ture is approached
ote Italian architect and ers: 'From spoon to king on a chair, on a on a house at the same e this in my office since he different teams of esigners, and product oss disciplines.
s Italian craftsmanship. 2019, we launched a on produced by F.lli acturer in Liguria, Italy, with the glassblowers Venini, Barovier & Toso, uch believe in ‘Made in
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HG SERIES
ESSAY Matteo Thun CEO & FOUNDER OF
Matteo Thun & Partners
HoteliersGuild
“
have established the concept of the three Zeros: Zero
Green' architecture is not a trend - it is a return to
expertise. Zero CO2: energy management and fewer
normality.
emissions. Zero waste: life cycle management in the
The current debate on the environment, climate change
construction process and reuse of building materials.
kilometers: close to building materials and local
and sustainable consumption, the visions of scientists and philosophers who attribute a healing role to nature
Wellbeing and health are playing an increasingly
and the flora, and the activities of international
important role in the development of hotels. When
conservationists have clearly made us all aware of this
planning a trip, one want to make sure the food is freshly
important issue.
prepared and cooked with local ingredients, want to strengthen the body - also preventively - want to
As architects however, we are trying to avoid two terms
'breathe' natural materials. Guests are interested in the
from our vocabulary: sustainability and ecology. Both are
place in its physical context, in the architecture and the
pleonasm - so it is completely unnecessary to talk about
rituals that can be consumed.
it. If an architect does not plan sustainable, does not act ecologically, he should not practice this profession. We
Because of our experience in this field, the Italian Elle
have replaced the two words with durability - with
Decor chose us for their annual project “Elle Decor
aesthetic and structural durability. The authorship of our
Grand Hotel”, an exhibition in the Palazzo Morando in
projects should not be legible.
Milan. In cooperation with a landscape architect and a nutritionist, we were able to stage wellbeing and health
Of course, this applies to our hotel projects as well - in
in the world of the hotel industry in the exhibition
urban settings or in nature. The SIDE Hotel in Hamburg
'Design Therapy': 'Design Therapy' tries nature and
has recently undergone a slight renovation - after two
naturalness, stimulating the senses, freshness, nutritional
decades. The Vigilius Mountain Resort in South Tyrol was
aspects as well To unite local and regional handicrafts
our first hotel that was built entirely according to
and achieve physical and mental wellbeing. The
sustainability criteria and today, after more than 20 years,
installation shows the strength of a simple, simple design
the larch wood facade with its silver patina has aged
for a vision of hospitality that is tangible and preventive
wonderfully - just like the forest that surrounds the resort.
and in which the power of nature plays a central role.
Nature and a holistic design approach were the starting points for the entire resort. At Waldhotel am Bürgenstock
We should talk about botanical architecture. We should
(Bürgenstock Resort), nature will turn the building green
talk about healthy life. We should really invent our self in
after a year or two - also a project that we designed after
terms of protecting our planet, and trying to give to our
the three zeros: In order to be able to offer a simple
children what we experience when we were young.
certification to the guest, a ‘file rouge’, so to speak, we
“
Celebrating Matteo Thun
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LuxuryFrontiers
3
Luca Franco
A Moment with Luca Franco, Founder & CEO
“My previous background was in luxury resort development and advisory, and by 2010 I had identified the fastest growing demand for ‘experiential’ or ‘adventure’ travel. A serial adventure traveler myself, I saw that the supply of experiential lodging (such as tented camps and treetop suites) was overwhelmingly small and fragmented. It became obvious to me that as more luxury travellers sought adventure, 1) these travellers would be disappointed by the largely midscale offerings, 2) luxury hotel brands would be missing out on this business and 3) I wanted to create something meaningful for people and environment. So in 2011, I founded Luxury Frontiers to bridge that gap between traditional luxury hospitality and experiential travel. As a firm, we have the opportunity to introduce unique and sophisticated alternative hospitality concepts to the world stage and capitalize on the rising number of discerning, yet curious and bold travellers. When a Luxury Frontiers project presents a design challenge, we do our research, roll up our sleeves, and think outside the box in order
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to deliver a cutting-edge, yet efficient, solution. For example, in Utah, our team was asked to create a year-round luxury, adventureoriented offering which could withstand the extreme desert conditions throughout all seasons. As a result, we performance engineered a high-design structure never seen before. Our tented design can keep luxury guests comfortable under snow loads, in temperatures varying from 20 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and amid wind reaching speeds up to 85 mph. Apart from Amangiri, we are presently especially excited about the Nayara Tented Campin the Arenal Volcano region of Costa Rica; the ultra luxury tented camp in Utah, USA – to be announced soon; a super-exclusive private island project in the Maldives; and a tented product at a premier branded resort which we can’t yet name in the Serengeti National Park of Tanzania (but you’ll be the first to know!). And we just completed the Belmond Savute Camp in Botswana.
”
Camp Sarika tented Pavilions - Opening in April 2020 Ochre in the morning light, apricot by midday, dazzling pink at dusk, the geology of the Grand StaircaseEscalante couldn’t be more dramatic. Residing in 600 acres of the Colorado Plateau, and requiring an Act of Congress to be passed so it could be built here, Amangiri blends into countless untouched square miles of red rock country. In the last remnant of the truly wild West, this ‘mountain of peace’ is cradled by the greatest concentration of national parks in the United States – a staggering landscape of canyons, mesas, mountains, gorges, rapids and desert, with traces of human life dating back more than 10,000 years. In this grand theatre of nature, the modernist Suites of Amangiri and the tented Pavilions of nearby Camp Sarika offer an inspiring welcome to one of the world’s most dramatically secluded settings.
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Camp Sarika tented Pavilions - Opening in April 2020 Five minutes from Amangiri, surrounded by towers of desert rock, the tented Pavilions of Camp Sarika enable intimate encounters with the wonder of the wilderness, and no compromise on comfort.
Celebrating Luca Franco’s LuxuryFrontiers
IBUKU
4 Elora Hardy
Elora
Hardy and her team of designers, artisans, and
builders at IBUKU are reimagining sustainable building, using one of nature’s strongest and most versatile materials Bamboo. Her father, John Hardy, started a new age of bamboo at his BambuIndah Hotel and at the Green School in Bali, and she has definitely succeeded to further transform this very humble tropical plant from a purely decorative design element into a sustainable structural material with great potential for the future.
Today, IBUKUÂ is a team of young designers, architects and engineers exploring groundbreaking ways of using bamboo to build homes, hotels, schools, and event spaces in Bali, Indonesia. They are creating a new design vocabulary based on this one material and exploring the way sustainable architecture and design can redefine luxury. The traditional skills of Balinese craftsmen, combined with their design ideas and modern engineering enable them to create original bamboo structures that meet the needs of a diverse clientele.
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Bamboo has the compressive force of concrete, the strengthto-weight ratio of steel, and is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. Damage from insects and moisture are its primary weaknesses, but if treated, bamboo structures can last a lifetime.
At the BambuIndah Hotel, an all-bamboo riverside spa was built on land that harnesses a range of energies, from the constant flow of the river to the energy of the property itself. Moon House, the Copper House and the Riverbend are the latest addition.
Guests are experiencing the combination of an exclusive sustainably minded jungle retreat with the luxury of full hotel services, and the deep immersion in a natural environment with breathtaking attention to both, unconventional ‘joglo’ & bamboo architecture and design and warm hospitality.
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Message from Elora Hardy CREATIVE DIRECTOR
IBUKU | BALI
HoteliersGuild
IBUKU
is a team of designers, architects and engineers that is exploring groundbreaking ways of using bamboo to build homes, hotels, schools, and event spaces in Bali, Indonesia. We are creating a new design vocabulary based on this one material and exploring the way sustainable architecture and design can redefine luxury. The materials we use, the people we work with, and the land we build on all inform our design process. The traditional skills of Balinese craftsmen, combined with our design ideas and modern engineering enable us to create original bamboo structures that meet the needs of a diverse clientele. Our goal is to ensure Bali is recognized as a global center for sustainable design. As Founder and Creative Director Elora Hardy, explains: “IBUKU’s goal is to provide spaces in which people can live in an authentic relationship with nature. We do this by designing fully functional homes and furniture that are made of natural substances and built in ways that integrate with nature. IBUKU is creating spaces where living in nature is living in style.” We give our projects detailed care and attention from start to finish, including bespoke interior furnishings. IBUKU has built over 100 bamboo structures in Bali, Indonesia, and around the region. Completed key projects include the Green School, Green Village, Sharma Springs, and Bambu Indah Eco Resort, which have appeared in international publications like Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Vogue, TED, and the Huffington Post. Where the story began IBUKU’s origins lie in the belief that bamboo can change the way we build. Bamboo has had a long tradition as a building material in Bali. In the 1980s, the arrival of young designers from western countries took bamboo building to an exciting new level. Linda Garland pioneered this movement, attracting international attention with her innovative designs in houses and furniture. She pioneered new treatment methods to preserve the bamboo and prolong its life. Linda’s work also inspired her friend John Hardy to take a greater interest in bamboo. John soon came to see bamboo as the future of sustainable building and made a vow never to construct another wood or concrete building. John’s first serious bamboo building was conceived with architect Cheong Yew Kuan in a rice field full of tall umbul-umbul flags. Inspired by the natural curve of the bamboo, they tied the tips of the poles together into a towering arch. This ultimately became Kapal Bambu, the ‘bamboo ship’ showroom at the John Hardy compound in Bali. In late 2007, John gathered a team to design and build the Green School. The first structure at Green School was a bridge, connecting the two sides of the river valley campus. It stands as an outstanding example of what is possible when architects, engineers, designers, and craftsmen come together to build in a new way. The construction of Green School led to many innovations in bamboo architecture and engineering. In 2010 Elora Hardy, John’s daughter, returned to Bali to continue the evolution of bamboo design under the name IBUKU. Together she and her team of talented Indonesian designers and architects have built 100 new bamboo structures in Bali. 16 of these buildings now make up Green Village, a community of luxurious private homes neighboring Green School, reinventing the rules and standards of what a building can look like. IBUKU continues to expand the potential of building exceptional bamboo structures and has built in the Maldives, Hong Kong, and Central Africa. Why bamboo? IBUKU uses bamboo because of its strength, beauty, and flexibility, and also because it is the most environmentally conscientious building material conceivable. In a world of retrofitting or re-designing traditional items and materials to be slightly less ‘bad’, we decided to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Though bamboo has traditionally been used throughout Asia in short-term structures, new treatment methods have given it a capacity for longer life. IBUKU’s bamboo is treated ecologically with a salt solution, then lab-tested to confirm its durability and integrity, making it as hard-wearing as timber. Not only is bamboo good for the environment, it also helps the people living in that space connect to nature which then enhances quality of life. Bamboo is a member of the grass family and there are 1,450 species growing across the world. With its three-year growth cycle and carbon sequestration capacity, even sustainable timber can’t begin to compare with bamboo as a building material. With very little attention, a bamboo shoot can become a structural column within three years, compared to 10-20 years for softwoods. Some species have been measured shooting skyward at 2 inches an hour or up to one and a half meters a day. Bamboo is also strong, with the compressive force of concrete and
the strength-to-weight ratio of steel. IBUKU primarily uses the species Dendrocalamus Asper, known as Petung in Indonesia. Our bamboo is carefully selected from the river valleys and mountains of the islands of Bali and Java in Indonesia. We harvest from clumps that, once established, grow a new generation of shoots each year. It takes just a few months for a new bamboo shoot to reach its full height, and in three years it becomes timber ready for harvest. IBUKU takes great care to ensure that only the mature poles are harvested, creating an incentive for the bamboo farmers to allow the younger shoots to grow to maturity for subsequent years’ harvests. Our design process occurs on the land and for the land. “Bamboo buildings are like a living organism, every bamboo pole represents the ‘DNA’ of the building, each unique like real strands of DNA. The strands of the bamboo ‘DNA’ form a network structure, where each pole has its own specific function, be it in the walls, ceilings, stairs or roof. When they come together, to form a body, it waits to be given a soul by those inhabiting the building,” sayd Defit Wijaya, Senior Architect at IBUKU. The houses are tailored to gently rest on their foundation, carefully set in the earth’s natural contour, so that they have minimal impact on the environment. Instead of conventional blueprints, we create to-scale structural models made of hand-whittled bamboo sticks. These models are replicated in 3D line in computer programs for our engineers to study and confirm that the building adheres to our strict codes. The design process doesn’t end there. Our architects and engineers then follow the project in depth through completion to ensure structural integrity and longevity. Like any natural fiber, bamboo must be protected from the sun and rain. The dramatic overhanging roof and tilting structural columns are designed to protect the villas for the long-term. To prevent moisture, our structural beams are secured by steel and concrete to large river rock stones. These are in turn secured within the earth’s foundation by steel rods reaching down several meters, as determined by our team of structural engineers. Sustainable luxury travel; One of the projects dearest to our hearts is Bambu Indah, a radically distinctive eco resort in Ubud, created by John and Cynthia Hardy. The long-barn reception and restaurant, and the Minang house at the heart of the hotel, were some of the early bamboo structures leading up to IBUKU’s founding. Aligned with its sustainable philosophy, organic food gardens surround the antique wood Javanese bridal homes that are the rooms. In 2013, IBUKU expanded Bambu Indah with a dramatic open-kitchen, called Dapoer, and built the hotel’s 12th room: a bamboo replica of a traditional Sumba house with a distinctive tall roof rising beside a bamboo grove. In 2017, IBUKU created two new rooms for the hotel, Copper House and Moon House, and completed the River Warung, a restaurant on the edge of the Ayung River. In 2018, Riverbend House was created as the newest member of the resort. The Moon House and Copper House structures allow guests to have the closest possible connection with ‘the pulse of nature’ while maintaining luxurious features and facilities. Each room is enveloped by a curving roof but open to the elements, and within, the beds can be completely enclosed and air-conditioned to provide the best of both worlds. The rooms were designed using a grid shell structure, which gives them a very organic feel, and were designed for the view and the land they were built upon. Both are tucked into the landscape and were designed to maximize the stunning outlook onto the river and rice fields. In Copper House (named after its beautiful copper roof shingles), the bathtub is one of the focal points of the room. The room was actually built around a tree that already grew on the ridge site. Elora Hardy says, “I thought it would be lovely to be standing in front of the tree and see a mirror over the sink and that incredible view at the same time.” For Moon House, the concept was also very simple- to wrap a shell around the space, create a beautiful space for the bed, and maintain the openness of the location. Moon House also has a spring-fed freshwater plunge pool right in front of it. Instead of a railing, moon house has a hammock net that wraps around it, above the pool. For both houses, the orientation of the bed conforms to the Balinese tradition of aligning the sleeping person’s head towards sacred Mount Agung. The way guests and international media have embraced these innovations have been extremely rewarding for the IBUKu tea, as well as the knowledge that IBUKU is contributing to changing the narrative about the design of sustainable and luxurious hospitality in the region.
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Bill Bensley
5 Bill Bensley
“ For me, being an environmentalist is a lifelong practice—it’s not some newfound greenwash. Back in the ’60s, before I even turned 10, my granola-munching old man had me composting, recycling, beekeeping and doing hydroponics and organic farming. My first degree was a bachelor of science in landscape architecture, where I learned about sustainability and how to be a steward of the earth. So I have always striven to give the planet the respect it deserves.
Eco Retreats Tented Camps Gardens…
As an architect, however, I work with developers who, for the most part, have a very shortsighted vision of the future. I recently revisited the Maldives, where I built a resort in 2005, and found that they have to constantly—24-7—suck sand off the seabed through a huge pipe and then distribute it to the beaches. That’s not sustainable— it’s merely staving off the inevitable. In all my experience on this island nation, nobody speaks of the future—almost like global warming doesn’t exist.
“
Sustainable Tented Camps
Tropical Hideaways Bill Bensley designs tented camps and residences as he likes to live himself, surrounded by lush tropical gardens. He strives to build with minimal impact and wants travellers to also do their part. In fact, he was the one who convinced the Four Seasons to take a closer look on ‘glamping’ - the beginning of a new success story for them, which he followed up with projects for Capella in Ubud, Bali and Rosewood in Luang Prabang, Laos,
HG SERIES
Essay from Bill Bensley Architect
ECO LUXURY RESORT DESIGNER
HoteliersGuild
or good luck...", the mahout shouted, “walk three times around the trunk". I did just that and then paid the mahout a few baht for bananas to feed his rather bedraggled elephant. A month later she was hit by a car on the lawless chaotic streets of my new home in Bangkok. That was 1984.
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Five years later the Thai government, brilliantly called for a moratorium on logging. This put many elephants out of job, and elephants flooded urban areas as a matter of survival. The Asian elephant has had a rough history and an even dimmer future. Declared endangered in 2008 numbers have declined by 50% in the last 50 years. While numbers vary, I understand just 40,000 Asian survive today with only 65%. Why? Natural habitats are shrinking daily, poaching continues, and the treatment of domestic elephants can be horrific.
A decade later I designed the Four Seasons Elephant Camp and by doing so I was party to the brilliant Friedman + Heinecke + Roberts team that evacuated, (read; purchased and then rented to ensure long term incomes for the mahouts) 36 elephants from the streets of Bangkok to what must have been there new heaven; the Golden Triangle. These elephants are happy, healthy, and engage with visitors in a best practices only environment. My friend, John Roberts, has dedicated much of his life to elephants and is part of the Asian Captive Elephant Working Group which since 2015 has, I think, very sensibly tried to lay down the ground rules of how to live with and protect our few surviving elephants.
Conservationist Bill Heinecke, the owner of the Four Seasons Elephant Camp, has gone on to champion the work of Wildlife Alliance in the Southern Cardamon National Forest of Cambodia. While Friedman via GTAEF has raised vast sums for elephant welfare and has been instrumental in the making of Shinta Mani Wild, also in the Cardamon Forests. These guys and many more are truly dedicated. See http://acewg.org.While poaching of elephants has slowed, numbers are still declining, largely because of habitat loss, captive numbers maybe increasing but poor
captive elephant practices do not make this automatically a good thing.
Fast forward another 10 years, 2009, my business partner Sokoun and I purchased at a land auction a concession within the Cardamons, about the size of Central Park, during a sort of “Buy first Think later” moment. Long story cut short, 2019 saw the opening of Shinta Mani WILD, a 15 tent bastion to deter further deterioration of a very important wild elephant habitat. Our concession turned out to be the place of the most elephant human conflicts in Cambodia. This area 10 years ago was sparsely populated, but today villagers slash and burning the edges of our concession in an effort to flush
out any remaining wildlife to eat and afterwards to farm, thus the large number of conflicts. This week we are purchasing fire fighting equipment that our partners Wildlife Alliance can use to extinguish remote fires.
Last night I got a call from our radiant Camp Manager Sangjay and I was thrilled to hear that the herd of Wild elephants knocked down the guardhouse of our southern boundary.Wow, that is fantastic. Did you get any photos? I asked. He did, but I wish I had been there in person.
It is somewhat naive for some animal rights organizations to say that elephants should be set free. As the Cardamons are under enormous pressures of logging and wildlife trade, I would love to be able to build a Trumpian wall right around the park to keep people out and to allow the natural regeneration of the forest and wildlife. But that ain’t happening. Setting elephants free is marvellous utopian idea but that ain't happening either, at least not for a while. Complications of that idea started some 6 thousand years ago when folks first started to saddle up on pachyderms.
At Shinta Mani Wild we have partnered with Wildlife Alliance. They are an amazing on the ground, in the trenches, privately funded militia of armed soldiers that police the Cardamons enforcing Cambodia’s logging and wild animal laws of protection 24/7 and the saviors of the wild elephants in Cambodia. Trailblazer Suwanna
Gauntlett is the founder of WA and she explained to me just last week that setting domesticated elephants “free” while possible, is difficult at best and takes time and cannot be an answer for all elephants in countries like Myanmar & Thailand with very large captive elephant populations and parks already full of wild elephants (& sometimes poachers). The elephant has to be introduced to wild and also accepted by the herd. Because of tourism, the monetary worth of an elephant has risen tremendously in the last few years. I have heard current elephant prices are $50-95,000 and such prices here only fuels poachers. As the majority of elephants in Asia are privately owned, I think it is safe to say that not many individuals are willing to set free their investment or would even consider the associated costs of the introduction of a domesticated elephant into the wilds. But having said this I would love to make this a goal of Shinta Mani Wild.
Campaigning organizations have done a great job in bringing to light some of the tragic state of affairs of elephant tourism and the barbaric ways of breaking wild elephants into domestication. PETA has brilliantly brought to light the horrific ways that elephants in both logging and tourism practices are abused. To the the abusers of elephants...may you be banished from the face of this earth. ACEWG is brilliant in its practice, but has a small public voice.
How to elephant are my 7 suggestions to visitors how to responsibly engage with elephants.
1) Don’t buy ivory, Duh!
2) Circus acts just awful and demoralizing are clearly bad for elephant health. Skip the show!
3) The use of a wooden elephant seat for multiple riders maybe OK for short periods with the right equipment but can quickly become harmful,
unless you really know the owner, skip the seat. For thousands of years elephants were considered a beast of burden. A mature bull elephant in a harness can pull as much at 9000 lbs. Laos & Cambodia was considered to be the Land of a Million Elephants. That ain't the case no more. The Asian elephant is ENDANGERED. We are losing this species as you read. In Africa one elephant is killed every 15 minutes. But that is another story again.
4) If you see an elephant that is pacing with trunk continuously wagging, she is unhappy, perhaps (stereotypy, as it is called, is certainly a sign of past stress and can cause long term physical damage) ask the camp management why they cannot enrich this elephant’s environment.
5) Elephants need green spaces and other elephants for company, if a camp cannot or does not provide this in large measure certainly do not go there. For instance they get stressed when kept in sheds overnight and not in the forest.
6) If you see sores on an elephant or evidence of mistreatment, be loud in every way you can.
7) If so inclined donate to https:// www.helpingelephants.org AND or https:// www.wildlifealliance.org
as I do on a regular basis.
In the future, like tomorrow, I think that our governments should license the Mahouts to ensure basic good practices of elephant husbandry, after all we need a license to drive a car. Asian elephants are far more valuable to the planet than any vehicle.
Other than rudimental registration no privately owned elephants have ever benefitted from
governmental regulations. In Thailand, the Government has implemented a DNA based elephant registration scheme enforced by three agencies overseeing each other so no-one can be tempted to bend the rules I would like to champion a movement to ensure this is kept up & perhaps spread to other countries and see government involvement in strict licensing of all mahouts to ensure basic skills and elephant knowledge, the first measure has certainly helped with curbing the illegal wild elephant trade from Burma to Thailand. I understand that as much as 2/3’s of the calfs from Burma - where good records are kept - perish in the breaking process and this is certainly the case for wild caught calves everywhere.
This village has 300+ elephants, and they need to be fed and looked after medically. Story's polo project brought much needed funds to the village. The kids rose from 45th place in the region to 4th in english language.
I feel that riding an elephant a few hours a day behind the ears is proper practice. John Roberts explained to me that many elephants feel more comfortable with a person riding than walking because she knows where that person is all the time.
The phrase White Elephant comes from the King of Siam’s practice giving rare albino elephants to courtiers who had displeased him. The courtiers had to take care of them and so that they might be ruined by the animals' upkeep costs. While it is clear that we have a long way to go to protect both domestic and wild elephants populations from further degradation, it is also clear to me that a Buddhist middle road way forward might be appropriate. Read on.
At the Four Seasons elephant camp mahouts and management tip toe around the debate; To ride or not to ride, despite having years of good respectable elephant husbandry under their belts. In this case, I think the debate has swung too far to the right. What say you?
Mr. Ed Story started a wonderful program, the Ban Ta Klang project centered around ethical elephant polo fundraising in a remote village, Ban Ta Klang, in Isan, Thailand. The people of this village boast a 2,000 plus year history of mahouts, and presumably good elephant husbandry practices.
Two years ago that program was challenged by bad press that elephant polo was deemed unethical by folks that perhaps have not lived with elephants every day for the past 2000 years. As a result Ed has stopped the elephant polo fund raising and has changed focus to raising funds in Singapore. We know first hand that the elephants in this village are not abused. So who loses? Have these 300 elephants changed their color to white?
Bill
Celebrating Bill Bensley Architecture & Design
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HallOfFame
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A PROGRAM THAT PROVIDES PRO-BONO PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT TO OWNERS AND DEVELOPERS OF ECO-LUXURY HOTELS & RETREATS.
READ HERE
READ HERE
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