One&Only Mandarina
Design
woodentops Hidden in the
Before the pandemic, hotel designers were increasingly focused on bringing the outdoors in, but with Covid-19 lockdowns turbo-charging travellers’ desire to connect with nature, it now plays an even more important role in the design process. Elly Earls speaks to Hakan Ozkasikci, SVP design and technical services at Kerzner, which operates the One&Only Mandarina, Mexico, to fi nd out how embracing nature has infl uenced hotel design and what this does for the hotel experience.
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fter 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.
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
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