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Waghoba Ecolodge Resort / Biome Environmental Solutions

• Curated by Hana Abdel
• Architects: Biome Environmental Solutions
• Area Area of this architecture project Area:  3085 m²
• Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2021
• Photographs Photographs: Lalit Rajoria
• Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:   Adish Aluminium , Bathline , Hindware , The Purple Turtles
• Civil Works : Vikesh Agarwal
• Design Team:  Chitra Vishwanath, Anurag Tamankar, Maitri Shah
• Client:  Pugdundee Safaris
• Structural Consultant:  Satish Raipure
• Phe Consultant:  HMNagesh
• Swimming Pool:  Nandadeep Pools
• City:  Bengaluru
• Country:  India
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Text description provided by the architects. Waghoba ecolodge is a resort contiguous to the forest buffer of Tadoba wildlife sanctuary in the state of Maharashtra India. The target clientele for the property is wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists. The brief required a 16-cottage resort with responsible tourism at its core. The developers sought to restore the previously cultivated land to its original state of being a deciduous forest as part of their ecological intentions. This required interventions in the landscape to enhance biodiversity. By observing the land around and through a biodiversity survey local flora and fauna were identified. 

For biodiversity to flourish it was essential to incorporate a water body in the semi-arid climate of this region. In the summer temperature here rises to 48-degree C. By identifying the existing bund and desilting the channels a lake was made at the entrance of the resort. This lake stored the rainwater and treated wastewater. Additional afforestation with indigenous plant species provides a green corridor for the fauna to approach the lake. This lake now is home to a plethora of birds and animals. A lookout hide has been introduced in the design for enthusiasts and professional wildlife photographers to watch the fauna in its own habitat.

The landscape of Todaba’s has a variety of shades of gold to dark brown for the most part of the year and green during the monsoons. Capturing of the gold to brown hue has been done in the material palette of the architectural interventions. The material palette is a combination of local sandstone and stabilized adobes made at the site using local soil. The lake becomes the loci of the project. The main building and its welcome area, edge this lake. Here the travelers also enjoy the rising sun when they are getting ready to leave for the forest tour. Belvederes along the dining area and the lounge enjoy views of the lake, forest, and the evening skies. Below this elevated lounge is a shaded swimming pool with its deck overlooking the lake. The ceiling of the pool which has a filler of pot lids creates dynamic reflection while ecologically reducing material consumption.

The guests are accommodated in the cottages placed along the east-west axis at the core of the property. Each cottage has large openings in the north and south shaded by deep verandahs. Both the study desk and bed view the buffer areas giving an experience of living in the forest. As the peak season for safaris is summer the buildings are designed to reduce the cooling loads by using passive strategies. Composite stone and adobe walls on the east and west side reduce the heat gain. Toilet and the changing area shield the room from the western sun. A small skylit roof with heat reflective glass near the vanity wash basins brings in an ample amount of light inside the toilet area. A vaulted roof made of conical pottery tiles with air gaps between and ceramic mosaic on top insulates the interior spaces from the incidental heat from the rooftop.

The interior finishes of the guest areas continue the same color palette of light to dark brown and terracotta reds. The floor with golden brown Kota (limestone) blends well with the adobe walls. The terracotta red roof tiles create a contrast and make the vaulted ceiling stand out even more. The ferrocement lighting fixtures with warm yellow light set a very cozy mood. Staff housing on the west is carefully located to provide quiet space and privacy to its occupants while they are resting during breaks. The senior staff housing uses a similar design language to the guest rooms with adobe walls and terracotta vaulted ceilings. Junior staff dormitories are designed to offer windows near every single bed space. Load-bearing fin walls act as a partition between individual beds offering some level of privacy to its users. Water from the staff housing roof is harvested and stored in the 0.1million liter of the water storage tank.

All the sewage water from the property is treated using a plant-based water treatment system PHYTORID developed by National Environmental Engineering Institute NEERI and is subsequently used for growing the organic vegetables and the forest on the property. The use of terracotta either as filler in the RCC slabs or roofs for the residential spaces adds to the concept of the circular economy. These are produced in the village and local areas and use the desilted soil from the lakes.

Since most buildings even in the rural area are adopting RCC construction these skills are dying out. As locals migrate and agricultural activity reduces the desilting of lakes stops. The non-desilting leads to a drop in aquifer recharge. We used terracotta consciously to make the facility part of a virtual cycle. We want the facility to showcase that ecological architecture is in sync with the ecosystem. The vaulted roofs were done in collaboration with the Centre for Science for Villages (CSV) Wardha. This is an organization that works on Gandhian principles and values. The project for us is a happy collaboration of ecology, social, and leisure.

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Project location

Address: bengaluru, karnataka, india.

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Case study: Four Seasons Resorts – Maldives ‘Reefscapers’ Coral Restoration Project

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After 22 years, Four Seasons Resorts' partnership with Reefscapers in the Maldives has developed into one of the world’s largest artificial reef restoration projects

Through its environmental, social and governance (esg) programme, four seasons hotels and resorts is committed to preserving and regenerating the beautiful places in which it operates, and to leaving a positive, enduring impact on its local communities..

In 2001, Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa began a pioneering partnership with local environmental agency, Reefscapers , to protect and regrow coral colonies in the Maldives.

Using an innovative technique of tying coral fragments onto ‘coral frames’ – produced by a local co-operative of eight employees – the Resort set about restoring local reefs. Each genotype was painstakingly logged to help identify species more resilient to bleaching, and each frame regularly monitored, photographed and maintained. For more than two decades, guests have been invited to plant their own reef and watch it grow at MarineSavers.com.

Fast forward 22 years and the partnership between Four Seasons Resorts Maldives and Reefscapers has developed into one of the world’s largest artificial reef restoration projects.

Thanks in part to the kind donations of Four Seasons guest sponsors, more than 8,500 transplanted reef structures now subsist in the waters around the two Maldivian Resort islands of Kuda Huraa and Landaa Giraavaru. Comprising some 500,000 fragments from 40 species of coral, the project has inspired a country-wide program of coral reefscaping.

In 2022, the project’s first-of-its-kind Artificial Intelligence (AI) research was recognised in peer-reviewed science journal, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems . The pioneering study used AI to assess, analyse and record data on the Resorts’ use of coral frames, becoming the world’s largest study of its kind on coral restoration to date—with results centred around emerging technologies published with the aim of inspiring scientists in numerous fields to take on similar cross-disciplinary challenges, and find new ways to protect the environment.

The process of restoration is now going full cycle with asexually propagated frames that have matured now undergoing natural sexual reproduction. The Reefscapers team has been documenting these coral spawning events and patterns across two Maldivian reef atoll systems since 2021.

By tracking its transplanted coral colonies over months and studying countless influencing factors to calculate spawning times, the team has managed to capture every stage of the coral spawning process on video.

In a further evolution of its pioneering studies, the team was the first in the Maldives to collect gametes from mature corals in situ, and fertilise and settle them in the lab; with an estimated 90% dying in the wild in the first 6 months of their life, settling coral ex-situ dramatically boosts survivorship prospects.

To date the team has settled five species more than eight times and hopes to create a simple methodology that can be used across the country to repopulate areas of damaged reef, increase diversity, and help colonies adapt to changing environmental conditions.

More information on the conservation projects of Four Seasons Resorts Maldives can be found at https://marinesavers.com/ .

Share your sustainability news with the Alliance

As hospitality companies progress towards Net Positive Hospitality, the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance is keen to share good news and best practice from across the industry. Our  Net Positive LinkedIn Hub  acts as a positive space to celebrate these actions, achievements, and commitments.

We invite hotels to get involved by tagging  @Net Positive Hospitality  and  @Sustainable Hospitality Alliance , as well as  #NetPositiveHospitality , within LinkedIn posts relating to environmental sustainability or social responsibility. We will then re-share industry posts onto our LinkedIn hub, for companies across and beyond the hospitality sector to see. Companies can also send case studies to  [email protected] .

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Nikki Beach Resort by SOMA: A Sophisticated Matrix

SOMA is a New York-based architectural firm formed in 2004 and has experience in renovation and sustainability. SOMA’s projects—primarily located in New York City, Dubai, Qatar, Erbil, and Lebanon—span various industries, with special offers of luxury residential, hotel, condominium, and mixed-use buildings, demonstrating the firm’s cutting-edge appeal. SOMA frequently employs patterns that appear to self-organize and evolve in response to the site’s intended and unintended future usage. 

Thanks to its focus on merging craft, digital technologies, and environmental responsibility, the firm’s ideas and work have received critical recognition for its boundary-pushing nature. SOMA works closely with clients to fully comprehend their requirements and ambitions with external restrictions in today’s ever-changing cycle of occupancy and usage of buildings. Michel Abboud is the founding principal of SOMA Architects, who is a New York-based architect and artist.

SOMA has worked on various architectural projects in Lebanon. One of its proposed real estate and hospitality projects is the Nikki Beach Resort, located in Damour, Lebanon. The resort was launched on 27/6/2012 and was scheduled to open in 2014; the project was aborted. Michel Abboud and Leo Sguera were the principal and partner architects, and the interior design was done by one of the most famous designers Gregory Gatserlia. 

The Nikki Beach chain of Resorts is a vibrant, stylish, and fun brand with a culture of celebrating life. The project would have been a new benchmark of excellence for luxury lifestyle boutique hotels that would help the Lebanese economy.

The property is located at the Damour River’s terminus, a rural and coastal part of Lebanon. It has a gently sloping terrain with amazing views of the Mediterranean and the river. Damour is a coastal city in Lebanon, 24 kilometres south of Beirut, situated between Beirut and Saida, and is distinguished by a still-preserved rural plain and a compacted urban centre. 

Damour’s coastal plain, which lies between the highway and the sea, covers over 1,950,000 square meters, with bananas accounting for roughly 70% of the land. The plan for this project considers the cultural history of the area, making this place cheerful and serene.

The resort covers a built-up area of 14,000 sq.m, spreading over a land area of 42,000 sq.m . 45 villas, a boutique hotel, and a signature Nikki Beach Club with sizes of 105, 125, and 155 sq.m, a boutique hotel, a 5-star resort, spa, swimming pools , restaurants, water sports, fitness centre, and other related facilities. It began as a simple two-dimensional system that grew into a complex matrix that directs the design process at all scales. It fits perfectly according to size and aesthetically.

The various combinations of the three fundamental box-like volumes produce equally unique and different houses. Despite the association of these other pieces and their many varieties gives the entire evolution a united and coherent ensemble. The plan looks like a tree with branches near the sea, giving the space an oasis kind of a feel. Each “branch” provides direct pedestrian and vehicular access to the street. 

The result is a set of individually cut and constructed elements , maximizing each component’s visibility, daylight, and ventilation and making it naturally fit the site. The private suites are provided with their own deck space to make the customers feel at home, giving them more privacy and room to move around. There are 8 pools supplied on the site for leisure activities giving every block a separate collection for themselves. 

The site is surrounded by the lush green cover, including local trees and other native plant life of that area, giving this space a Tropical and modernistic look and complementing the climate of Lebanon. This would positively affect that area’s economy and tourism, providing more jobs and opportunities to highlight Lebanese culture.

The goal was to express to the client and prospective buyers the almost obsessive-compulsive efforts that the team has put into constructing customized residences for each resident instead of several dwelling projects in the area. Although the designers tried to keep the variances in the townhouses and chalets under control by designing eight varieties, the combination of those types always results in different experiences, outdoor areas, accessibility, and views to each dwelling, making the structure blend with the surroundings perfectly. 

This project highlights the signature style of SOMA, making this project one of their standout proposals.

SOMA architects are known for their creative and modernistic approach to designs, and this can be clearly seen in their proposal for this resort. This resort would host significant events and parties, which Lebanon is known for. This project is one of their most fascinating project proposals, capturing Lebanon’s natural beauty and the essence of the culture while creating spaces for luxury living and complementing the mantra of Nikki Beach, which is “Celebrating Life.” What do you think about this design by SOMA?

References:

www.zawya.com. (n.d.). Nikki Beach Resort Project – Details on ZAWYA MENA Edition . [online] Available at: https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/project/300113125831/nikki-beach-resort-project/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2021].

Boutique Hotel News. (2019). Nikki Beach to open boutique hotel in Lebanon . [online] Available at: https://boutiquehotelnews.com/news/industry/nikki-beach-to-open-boutique-hotel-in-lebanon/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2021].

SOMA. (2010). Architizer . [online] 19 Jan. Available at: https://architizer.com/firms/soma/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2021].

Nikki Beach. (n.d.). Nikki Beach – Hotels, Resorts, Restaurants & Beach Clubs . [online] Available at: https://nikkibeach.com/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2021].

Archello. (n.d.). Projects by SOMA architects . [online] Available at: https://archello.com/brand/soma-architects/projects?type=commercial&sort=-featured [Accessed 1 Jul. 2021].

Currently, an undergraduate architecture student Khushi is a keen reader and an amateur video creator, making her way through life with creativity and her passion for learning new things. She believes that there is an artist in everyone, it is just a matter of exploring oneself.

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Wellness Tourism Resorts: A Case Study of an Emerging Segment of Tourism Sector in Greece

• Conference paper
• First Online: 22 June 2021
• Cite this conference paper

• Marilena Skoumpi 3 ,
• Paris Tsartas 4 ,
• Efthymia Sarantakou 5 &
• Maria Pagoni 6  

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ((SPBE))

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Wellness tourism has recently been a fast-growing form of tourism, with continuously developing aspects that can produce massive profits. In Greece, health and wellness have been interconnected since the ancient times. The current objective is how to connect wellness to tourism. Wellness resorts are an aspect of wellness tourism which has only recently appeared in Greece. This type of hotels can be successful and competitive toward the resorts that operate abroad only if they focus on combining qualitative and innovative services with the local features of the area in which they operate. This paper aims to fill in the research gap that exists about wellness resorts in Greece, as well as about the specific characteristics of the visitors and the prospects of growth that wellness tourism has in Greece. Initially, it presents statistics related to health and wellness tourism, as well as to wellness resorts in Greece and worldwide. Secondly, it includes the primary research that has been conducted at two levels: The first level of research, which was conducted on the general public, resulted to conclusions on the public’s viewpoints about wellness resorts. The second level of research was conducted on wellness resorts in Greece, in order to define the specific characteristics of their visitors. The study offers conclusions as well as potential policies for the state and the entrepreneurs that can be implemented for the publicity and the promotion of this profitable form of tourism.

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Hellenic Open University, Patra, Greece

Marilena Skoumpi

Harokopio University, Kallithéa, Greece

Paris Tsartas

University of West Attica, Egaleo, Greece

Efthymia Sarantakou

Ministry of Tourism, Athens, Greece

Maria Pagoni

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Vicky Katsoni

University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Ciná van Zyl

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Skoumpi, M., Tsartas, P., Sarantakou, E., Pagoni, M. (2021). Wellness Tourism Resorts: A Case Study of an Emerging Segment of Tourism Sector in Greece. In: Katsoni, V., van Zyl, C. (eds) Culture and Tourism in a Smart, Globalized, and Sustainable World. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72469-6_32

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Published : 22 June 2021

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