Hidden in the woodentops

After long periods cooped up indoors, many travellers are looking to indulge in the outdoors for their next holiday. The pandemic also served to renew people’s appreciation for the healing power of nature; those daily walks during the strict first lockdowns were the only thing keeping many people sane. It’s little surprise, then, that the world’s growing need for connection with nature has filtered into hotel design – in an even bigger way than before. Foliage and natural materials were already finding their way into more and more properties before Covid-19 turbo-charged people’s desire to bring the great outdoors in. Almost ten years ago, ParkRoyal on Pickering, designed by WOHA, brought greenery to every aspect of the hotel experience in Singapore. Designed as a high-rise garden with plants cascading from exterior and interior walls, it has since become known by local taxi drivers as the ‘jungle hotel’. More recently, green facades, garden terraces and cascading greenery have become more common all over the world.

A steel exoskeleton supports a vertical garden at Villa M by Triptyque and Phillipe Starck in Paris, which was designed to ‘bring nature back to the city’, while the new Four Seasons Melbourne will house the world’s tallest vertical garden. Larger hotel groups like Westin have also embraced biophilic design, with a focus on organic materials and natural themes.

A luxury fiesta

One property that has integrated with the natural world more than most is the One&Only Mandarina, which opened in November 2020 atop lush cliffs on Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit coastline. ‘Nestled’ is an overused word to describe luxury properties, but in this case it truly applies. The 104-room hotel is nestled under the green canopy of the coastal rainforest, an integration that will only become more ingrained over time as the rainforest continues to grow around the property, which stretches across a 33-hectare landscape.

“This is a story that is based on an ongoing conversation with nature to ask for its assistance for the new built environment,” says Hakan Ozkasikci, SVP design and technical services at Kerzner, which operates One&Only hotels. Indeed, the group’s design partners in this dialogue, Rick Joy Studio, were chosen because of the importance they place on bringing nature and local culture into their design concepts. “Their design ethos is based on creating a strong connection with nature and striking a fine balance with the local culture via building connotations through design,” Ozkasikci explains.

Together, their vision was not only to surprise guests but to pique their curiosity to go out and explore – a feeling, Ozkasikci says, that is “simply addictive”. “The ability to surprise our guests has been maintained as we managed to provide truly incredible views and experiences in an environment, which people could not inhabit and enjoy otherwise. We wanted to craft each unit and facility to embed memories that would create a sense of curiosity to explore more. Given the returning guest rates, the sensation seems to be stronger than we dreamed of,” he smiles.

While the walls of the resort’s villas are mainly glass, with skylights allowing guests to stay attuned to the shifting rhythms of the clouds, personal plunge pools are bordered by lush greenery. Meanwhile freestanding treehouse rooms float 40 feet above ground, blending indoor and outdoor spaces with floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding walls. Expansive terraces overlook the distant horizon. “The interaction with the immediate surrounding provokes an awareness that one wants to perceive further as far as the eye can see,” Ozkasikci adds. “Be it in a tree house or in a villa, this co-existence exercise is exceptional, especially for the guests coming from an urban context.”

Lessons from nature

In a complete inversion of the typical design approach, with a project such as this, nature is in charge. “This property truly grows out of the site, and the architectural language is in sync with the environment in terms of materials, textures and colours in a way so humble that it all feels natural,” Ozkasikci says.

To ensure that the property blended seamlessly into its environment, with as little disruption as possible to the nature surrounding it, it was important to approach the design process with humility and maturity. “As a brand we do our best to respect the environment and to do that in this case, we had to make sure we understood the forces that shaped that location and factored them into the concept,” Ozkasikci explains. “Once the connection is made with the context, sustainability is a natural outcome.”

The One&Only Mandarina is located in a dense forest that sprawls over steep hills, which meant the design team had to be mindful of the long-term mutual impact of the building on the site and the site on the building. “If we choose to be somewhere with any of our resorts, we are honest about the rationale for being there – a copy and paste approach is not ideal as every location has unique characteristics to be considered,” Ozkasikci stresses.

In Mexico, the team had to understand the local patterns in nature to project how the property would look and feel five years or more from opening. “Natural waterways were evaluated, we inquired with botanists how the foliage would take over the elements we were introducing, we even studied the life cycle of trees as they would collapse on their own and we had to know when and where,” he notes. “We saw we had to learn the flora and fauna in detail not to disturb the wildlife while providing our guests with the exquisite comfort that is expected of us.”

Two important lessons have already been learnt just two years since the property opened – the first about the importance of maintenance. “We went the extra mile to make sure our impact on nature will be minimal, and saw that nature has a never-ending thirst to conquer,” Ozkasikci says. “A Nature Resort like this has a lot to do with material durability, correct detailing, high-quality finishes, and putting a bullet-proof maintenance strategy in place that comprises routine and preventative maintenance in one.” One&Only Mandarina has become the group’s testing ground for these principles and is already proving to be an invaluable source of information for the team at Kerzner.

The second lesson, about accessibility, is still in progress. “Vehicular access and pedestrian access require two very different analyses at a site like One&Only Mandarina, and the latter needs the property to settle a bit to find and add alternatives to assist with exploration, comfort, and ease,” Ozkasikci explains. “We are still learning from the site, and I am very happy to admit that there are still elements and experiences we are discovering that are worthy of providing pedestrian pathways for.”

The One&Only Mandarina is an extreme example of how a property can integrate with the nature surrounding it, but the themes the design team have explored and the approaches they have taken – from encouraging guests to explore the great outdoors to taking immaculate care over the sustainability of the property – are resonating more and more with guests, who have learnt a lot about themselves and what they want out of life over the past couple of years.

As Ozkasikci concludes: “The stresses and pressures of a hectic urban lifestyle are definitely driving factors in individuals wanting to seek out more time among nature reconnecting with natural surroundings and working on their well-being. Hotel design enjoys the opportunity to provide this comfort while, of course, creating an aesthetically pleasing environment.”