M:OFA designs a true Agro Resort. The design intent was to give a firsthand experience of countryside living to the urban travelers and sensitize them to the idea of living with nature, effectively utilizing resources and minimizing waste. Apart from being amidst nature in the cottages that resonate the local materials expressed in a contemporary design, the program also includes an animal farm with poultry, cattle, goats, fish and even an elephant for the rides around the forest. The experience within the resort would include a day-out at the dairy and the poultry farm. Further, there is a true emphasis on an organic vegetable, fruit and herbal garden from where the fresh produce along with the produce from the dairy and the poultry farm would be served in the gourmet restaurant throughout the day.
Abutting Jim Corbett National Park, Bijrani Range and Dhela river,viz a viz the location and design both, the Golden Tusk Resort reunites cosmos and nature with mankind. It rekindles, restores and respects this bond. The ideology of meeting and observing nature is clearly woven into the architecture planning and the program formulated for the resort.
Built with locally available materials, the design emphasis was in developing a rich experience through a cosmological relationship between the user and the pure surrounding nature. The changes in seasons, the change in light throughout the day as in the Zen philosophy, were considered as prime ideas to uplift the human spirit and provide solace to the souls coming from the jostling loud urban life to spend a weekend here.
Right from the Reception, exhibition gallery meant for nature lover photographers, Residential accommodations of various kinds (Forest view suites, Villas, luxury tents), a gourmet restaurant (that serves food using fresh organic ingredients grown on the resort), Swimming pool, recreational areas and spa are all arranged along a water rivulet that runs like a spine throughout the length of the site with multiple sit-out spaces and porches. The water rivulet itself is created by channelizing a natural stream of water that runs through the site, unobstructed yet fresh.
The villas and suites all have buffer spaces in the form of porches that become a part of the surrounding landscape carefully created by species that not only invite the local birds, but also tease all the senses right from vision, taste, smell and touch. Throughout the resort, the use of local stone masonry, reclaimed wood carpentry and metal works are all reflections of the local craftsmanship and materials of the surrounding regions that maintain a sensitive bond of sustainability by keeping the old professions alive. Apart from above a feature of growing and maintaining organic gardens through conducted workshops within the resort teaches the city dwellers the concept of sustainability and self-sufficiency minimizing the waste.
Design team : Manish Gulati, Sebastian Peter, Priyanka Mahajan, Richa Gupta, Shuchita Jain
