Spa & wellness


spotlights. That’s of a piece, moreover, with the holistic way designers are enacting biophilic principles at other properties. By way of example, Traxler showcases the Botánika Osa Peninsula, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection. Far from the potted plant cliche, this luxury Costa Rican hotel offers everything from stargazing rooftops to an outdoor reflection pond. Chosen to attract indigenous birds, even the hotel’s orchid and medicinal gardens are designed to bring nature in.


At their best, in fact, biophilic properties seem almost to surrender themselves to nature, tweaking their design to showcase the best our planet offers. To explain what he means, Perrot highlights another Accor hotel, the Novotel Recife Marina. In a sun-kissed corner of northern Brazil, Perrot describes how the property’s vast windows ensure that “light really enters into the heart of the building”. Framed by the Atlantic, the position of rooms and public spaces trick guests into thinking they’re floating on the open sea. “You really have a sense of space in this property,” Perrot says. “There is a strong emotion thanks to biophilia.”


The whole world’s a stage


Combined with an emphasis on local building materials, hotel biophilia clearly transcends Traxler’s potted plant fears. As this attention to detail implies, however, getting things right isn’t always easy. Think about it like this: whatever their intellectual pretensions, these are ultimately still places to eat, sleep and relax. By their very nature, moreover, hotels are transient places prone to wear and tear. “One of the main challenges here,” Traxler says, “is ensuring that biophilic elements are not only aesthetically pleasing but also sustainable and practical to maintain, given the high traffic demands our hotels are subject to.”


While that can plausibly be solved by using robust materials like granite or bamboo, there are broader issues too, particularly when it comes to the biggest brands. For while biophilia should ideally adapt to the local environment, multinationals must equally follow global design standards. At Accor, at least, the way Perrot and his team square the circle is by developing a global Biophilic Design Guideline.


Providing insight everywhere from broad biophilic principles – to how guest rooms should look across different Accor verticals – the Frenchman says this ensures “everyone” from design chiefs down understand what to work towards. That’s especially helpful, Perrot adds, when Accor acquires a pre- existing property, and can’t simply start landscaping from scratch. Not that biophilia at Accor is a totally centralised concept. On the contrary, Perrot ends the conversation by praising the monthly meetings he hosts with colleagues around the world. “I like,” he says, “to share best practice projects so that people in


Hotel Management International / www.hmi-online.com 15


America know what’s being done in Japan or China – and vice versa – so that they learn about the evolution happening in other countries and regions.” Considering the natural diversity of the planet at large, that’s surely wise. ●


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