No man is an island entire of itself.
How to build a space where hospitality provides romance and deep contact with nature but still boosts social encounters? How to lead people to really share with one another this extreme experience of one of the most remote places on the planet?
People naturally seek for complicity of others when going thru extraordinary days. Everyone in this island is connected by a common search and dedication to achieve one of the biggest archetypes in literature: the island. The ultimate metaphor for isolation allows people to do things they would not normally do. Without pressures of society, we go back to the basics of humanity; we’re linked to each other.
The hotel in the Maldives will provide a welcoming space for people to live light, to unleash creativity, amplify natural feelings in a dreamy state. For the past years, studio mk27 team had the privilege to imagine a shelter for a radical living experience, a temporary home in the exuberant infinite blues, wildlife and open skies. The volumetric answers are extremely delicate, respectful to its surroundings, trying to provide shadows and coziness, to capture and amplify the landscape strength. The architectural lines never break the horizon, they speak low and elegantly. All buildings are visually permeable, melted, dematerialized, putting life and men in the center of the experience.
The island’s shape followed natural curves. The greens take care of almost all the island and determine a series of beaches and trails in the nature, erasing any traces of human gestures. The only built path, in wood, determines an axis that organizes the whole program for the hotel. On the left there are the main building and most of the villas. To the right, there’s the spa and the common spaces of the village and beach club. The landscape ornaments the whole island, creates privacy for the villas and unfolds to highlight the most important common buildings, establishing a hierarchy of focuses to the different constructions.
After arriving, the guest goes takes the natural trails to reach his villa. A new aspect of the island arrives, the possibility for an immerse experience full of surprises, a promise of hidden treasures to be found.
The apprehension of a 1km circle begins. In 15 minutes from the main building, you can reach most of the beaches in the island, or you can run 5 km during sunset and gain its whole perimeter.
The SPA is an “island within the island”. A building invaded by skies and dense vegetation from all sides. The massage rooms can be floating boxes or inside the building, but still enjoying nice, framed views of the surroundings. Here you can almost forget that you are surrounding by water.
The atmosphere becomes more vibrant, cute and fun in the Village. Buildings fully melted in the sand, where you can’t feel the transition of the outside. The heart of the village, where people meet, do their footing, rent their scuba diving equipment, stop by casually to shop for fruits and flowers before heading to a boat tour. The community feeling reached in a place where everyone is united by the same.
The hotel is a kaleidoscope of atmospheres organized in an ascending way: from private to public, from isolation to belonging, from simplicity to sophistication. We escalate the textures and emotions from 0 to 100, from soft shadows to overwhelming light. It’s a rhythm with contrast, pauses and transparencies. From slow dolce far niente to exuberant real vitality, it is a place for people to bond with nature and each other, for people to experience the essential with glamour.
