An island, entire of itself - JW Marriott’s first resort in Europe

A city's lungs may be its parks, but it is Venice's scattered islands that have traditionally provided breathing space away from the built-up metropolis. From cultivating vegetables on Sant'Erasmo, to quarantining maritime arrivals on Lazzaretto Nuovo, the past few centuries have seen the further reaches of the archipelago serving as a valued resource away from the city's thoroughfares. In fact, one such islet - the man-made Isola delle Rose - actually became home to a pulmonary hospital in 1936, offering patients the peace and fresh air to convalesce right up until its closure in 1979.

'Rose Island' then lay all but abandoned for the next few decades - echoing the fate of numerous other small islands across the lagoon and away from the main tourist trail - until work began to transform it into a luxury resort.

On the site of the old hospital, offering guests a rather different kind of recuperation, now stands the JW Marriott Venice Resort and Spa; the brand's first Italian hotel and its first resort in Europe.

Tasked with creating this stylish modern destination from the disparate collection of period buildings was renowned architect and designer Matteo Thun. With award-winning hotels behind him, such as the elegantly sculpted Vigilius Mountain Resort in South Tyrol, a more able pair of hands would have been hard to find. Thun is a master of sustainable, contextual design that allies a building with its surroundings. For Rose Island - encircled by water, with views of the Venetian skyline and with its cluster of state-protected historic buildings - such a skill could not have been more valuable.

For Thun, it was an immensely appealing challenge. Speaking to Hotel Management International in 2012, the Italian referred to the liberating scale the project offered in being able to plan and design for an entire self-contained island.

With the resort now completed and populated with guests (its grand opening at the end of June), Thun is today no less buoyant about the commission.

"Working on Rose Island was a huge opportunity for me and my team," he says. "You rarely have the possibility to apply such a holistic approach to a project, reaching from the requalification of the landscape garden and the buildings to the interior design, and the design of some furniture and decorative items."

Lesson in communication

With such freedom, the need to carefully manage the design process and keep the project on track is, of course, vital. In achieving this, Thun counsels, good communication is always essential.

"A constant dialogue with the client is indispensable if you want to create a successful project," he says. "And, in this specific case, a constant exchange with the local authorities was also extremely important."

With original buildings dating from different periods and built for varying purposes, Thun faced a diverse array of sizes, structures and styles, and each building required a tailored architectural approach. As a state-protected island (latterly home to a UNESCO project to preserve the lagoon's ecosystem) buildings needed to be redesigned from the inside-out, using a box-within-a-box construction method.

It was therefore primarily within the interior design of each building that Thun had the freedom to create his modern aesthetic.

"Here, we were able to fully apply our understanding of contemporary hotel design, made of soft fabrics, selected details and loose furniture transmitting a sense of home," he says.

Central to the interior scheme was the use of locally sourced and crafted materials; among them fabrics from Venetian manufacturer Rubelli and lighting fixtures made in collaboration with Venetian glass company Barovier & Toso. This is wholly characteristic of Thun's approach to design - sensitively binding a property with its cultural and environmental context.

Thun explains: "We wanted to link with the history and tradition of Venice without being nostalgic or just borrowing stylistic elements without reinterpreting them. So we have chosen materials belonging to traditional, Venetian craftsmanship: glass, fabrics, wood. In the way we have applied these elements, we have created a light and friendly atmosphere, and have privileged a dialogue between in and outdoors.

"In such a unique land, sea and cityscape, you need to give the guest the possibility to visually or physically merge with the outer environment as often as possible."

In and out

Such links between the interior and exterior are sensitively achieved throughout the master plan. The main hotel (situated within the old hospital building) features an outdoor pool and a panoramic restaurant. Paths lead guests around the island past vegetable plots servicing the resort's kitchens and the old formal gardens, which have been maintained. A sense of privacy, space and seclusion is created throughout, with shrubbery separating one garden from another and many rooms featuring private pools with views of the lagoon.

Allowing guests to enjoy this relationship with a hotel's physical and cultural environment is instinctive to Thun, but it's also something he advocates for more strongly as leading global brands extend their reach.

"The growth of international hotel chains has led to international standards in design, comfort and services, which on the one hand is reassuring for the guest: they knows what they can expect from which hotel; and it increases economic efficiency for the hotels," Thun says. "But on the other hand, I would love to see a stronger link with the local culture and nature.

"Especially when travelling for business reasons, you rarely have time to really explore the places. So it would be nice to grasp the flavour of the local lifestyle and capture some of the local traditions. In an easy, maybe even ironic way. Let's call this some sort of 'cultural story telling'. This would be an opportunity for the guest and for the geographical area."

While Thun's passion for a building's environment is most obviously expressed in the aesthetics of his designs, it is also deeply rooted in the ecological. Time and again Thun has demonstrated his devotion to energy efficiency within the construction and day-to-day running of a property, but also in designing buildings that can and will last. Take for example the 161-suite 'healthy living' hotel currently under construction at Burgenstock, overlooking Lake Lucerne. Set to open in 2017, the Bürgenstock Hotels property will use lake water to cool technical equipment for wastewater uses, is south-oriented and features 'green' roofs for efficient temperature regulation.

Going local for sustainability

Thun explains why the origin of the materials used in his designs is so bound up in his overall approach to environmental sustainability.

"Local materials have a nearly zero kilometres distance to the construction site, so pollution coming from transportation is limited to a minimum," he says. "Beyond that, local materials contribute to creating stylistic coherence with the construction site. In fact, local materials are the same materials that reflect the local building tradition and thus integrate into the context and surroundings. And, by integrating harmoniously into the surroundings, buildings gain a long-term aesthetical value and acceptance, thus becoming more sustainable as they will be appreciated for a longer time than architectural projects that won't reflect the cultural background of the neighbourhood."

With several new hospitality projects under way, some with major brands, guests can look forward to benefitting from Thun's culturally sensitive touch in a few more destinations. For Thun himself, one in particular is worthy of mention. The most central hotel in the German spa town Baden Baden, the Europäischer Hof, is currently undergoing a multimillion-euro renovation expected to be completed in 2017.

"This project is special as the original hotel has grown through many years of activity and transformed into a complex chain of buildings differing in style. So our idea is to maintain key elements - architectural ones, above all, but also furniture or decorative elements - and create environments which are up to date in terms of comfort and technology, but which still conserve the authentic mood."

In bringing this about, Rose Island's curious collection of buildings will no doubt be a helpful reference point for Thun and his team. And with the celebrated natural beauty of the resort town nestled in the foothills of the Black Forest, the Italian's time-tested method of steeping a building in its environment seems sure to please.