City: MAURITIUS

Maritim Hotel SPA, Balaclava, Mauritius
Cost of the Project : 1,250,000
Built-up area : 750 Sq.m
(In case of public building minimum built-up area should be 1000 sq.meter)

Description of Project :

The Flower Spa is the heart of the Maritim Spa located in the Maritim Hotel on the west coast of Mauritius. The spa was created to provide a unique concept for a tropical spa. The concept was based on guests choosing from four or five indigenous flowers which are blended in front of the guests…totally organic and highly effective. This concept resulted in the spa design evolving as a village grouped around a luscious flower garden. The consultation pavilion became the garden temple where guests come face to face with the flower concept.

The spa consists of a village of buildings including:

Reception centre and management offices
6nos. Single treatment rooms
Guest changing and private sauna facilities
Dry treatment pavilion
Hair salon and Manicure/Bridal suites
2nos. Double treatment rooms
Wet treatment pavilion
Relaxation lounge behind a waterfall

The spa village is divided into outer and inner sanctuaries. Both are protected by gates. The first gate is always open leading the client into the first sanctuary. The facilities in this part of the spa include the reception, salon, manicure/bridal suites, changing facilities and the wet treatment pavilion. This latter pavilion has views out into the inner sanctuary, with views of the pond and waterfall, but no direct access. Entry to the inner sanctuary is available to clients who have selected their flower treatment and are allowed into this area through the second gate with the consultation pavilion and treatment rooms beyond. A sense of mystery is achieved.

The various buildings that form the spa village each have their own appropriate design with airy treatment spaces. All are grouped around a pond which is fed by a feature waterfall behind which can be found a relaxing lounge. The consultation pavilion is flanked by beds of the specially been chosen for the various treatments available to the clients.

Materials Of Construction Details :

The materials used through all the buildings of the spa village are consistent with each other, apart from the consultation pavilion, although the building forms change to suite each activity. All buildings are thatched with sugar cane thatch, yet the  treatment rooms are air conditioned rooms with large glazed openings leading onto private gardens, the wet treatment area is a large covered amphitheatre veranda open to the flower garden beyond, and the dry treatment pavilion is a circular structure providing an ideal yoga and stretching pavilion on the edge of the central pond. The relaxation pavilion is cut into a hillside and the curved open facade which steps down into the central pond is the washed by a feature waterfall cascading from the hillside behind the building.

The basic materials of local field stone and sugar cane thatch are natural materials found in Mauritius. The field stone is not quarried but is cut from surface boulders or is brought to site as flat slabs which have been dug from just under the surface of cane fields. These stones are then worked by local craftsmen who can still be found on the island of Mauritius. The sugar cane thatch is a bi-product of the sugar cane industry. The thatch is cut from the top of the sugar cane and is today dipped into a fire retardant treatment before being woven onto the timber roof structures.

Special Features :

One of the exciting features of the spa village is the wet treatment area. This amphitheatre has a panoramic view on the flower garden and houses the relaxation pool, sauna, hammam and wet treatment rooms. The entrance to this facility is on the middle level of the stepped amphitheatre with the pool and pool deck 45cms below and the wet treatment facilities 45cms above. The wet treatment rooms are local field stone clad nautilus shell forms creating private rooms at the back of the facility. The hammam and the sauna have small private gardens which open out from the back of the upper level of the wet treatment area and the whole facility has views from every part of the amphitheatre onto the flower garden, pond and waterfall. Another iconic building is the consultation pavilion which is constructed as a timber temple sitting on the entrance axis of the spa. This pavilion sits behind the second gate of the spa and is a timber post and beam construction sitting on the edge of the pond and flanked by beds of the specially selected flowers which are used in the massage oil blends.

Project contains a main house with 2-level basement, a separate chalet, and a separate garage within a landscaped sloping site with expansive views of mountain and the ocean.

The house borrows its cues from local vernacular vocabulary but has contemporary living attributes. The experience of the house is through a stroll starting from the garage at lower end, through the house verandahs up to chalet, intermingling built form and nature.

Materials of Construction Details:

Concrete

Block walls

Cut-stone

Recycled plastic decking

Recycled synthetic trash

Zinc-alum roof covering

Special Features:

On a very slopy site, we have shaped and merged the house in its surrounding. The end result is a natural flow between built form and scaping.

Between zones have been created as follows: A beautiful cut-stone retaining wall has been created to hold the sloping site, putting no pressure on the house, and letting the house breathe and allowing natural light to enter the side of the basement. Proper skylight brings additional natural light into a planten, allowed air flows; and glazing have allowed expansive views within the house.

Salient Feature of the Project
Name & Location :  Raffles Hotel and SPA, Praslin Seychelles
Built-up area : 20,000 8. m.
cost of Project : (US$)8O Million
(In case of Public Building minimum built-up area should be 1000 sq. meter)

Description of Project

The Raffles Hotel and Spa, Praslin, Seychelles is an 70 suite hotel located on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles. The project was challenging in many different ways. Construction in the Seychelles is generally considered to be the most difficult in the Indian Ocean. Construction on the off-shore island of Praslin, famous for its Coco de Mer, found at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Vallée de Mai, is even more challenging, and the site, located on the east side of the island consisted of slopes greater than 15%. The design process had to consider the logistics of such challenges.

The hotel consists of:
74nos Suites
8 Ibed Villa Suites
4 2bed Villa Suites
Main building and Back of House
Pool bar and Restaurant
Spa and Gym
All Day Dining Restaurant
Seafood Restaurant
Deli Café Restaurant
Speciality Restaurant
Kids Club
Business Centre

De-saiinization plants are included to provide the hotel with potable water and the waste treatment plants provide irrigation water
to maintain the beautiful natural vegetation.

Materials of Construction Details

The materials used throughout this hotel project are consistent with building construction in the Seychelles. The basic structural work is concrete frame with local concrete block infill panels. The concrete blocks are manufactured on the mainland using local aggregate and ferried across to Praslin. The roof construction is lightweight, steel framed, boarded and finished with a raised seam aluminium cladding. The use of local red granite, peculiar to the island of Praslin, is limited. Being such a small island, only 38 sq.km., and with the World Heritage Nature Reserve protecting a large part of the island, only small quantities of this beautiful granite can be quarried. Because of these constraints the use of this granite was mostly restricted to areas of panelling in the suites acting as bedheads and in feature walls within the complex. Although this is a local material and local stone masons were used to complete the work only these small areas of local material could be used. All other materials had to be ferried across from the mainland, some 44kms away, in landing-craft.

The introduction of materials alien to Seychelles could not be avoided, but these were kept to a minimum. The simple forms of the architecture do not compete with the natural landscape and therefore it is the flora which is dominant in general with only the large overhanging roofs projecting through the natural canopy.

Special Features

The challenges of the steep site and the high standard of environmental control demanded by the Seychelles Government required that the work on the site be executed in a sensitive manner. Existing red granite boulder outcrops had to be preserved, some of the protected species Coco de Mer were found on the site and had to isloated and a dramatic storm water gulley cutting through the site had to be maintained. All this in mind the foundations of all the buildings consisted of column pads dug into the hillside between the natural features. The columns were then raised to floorslab level and the construction of each building, including all the plunge pools, sprung from these elevated stilts. The care required to achieve this work can be seen particularly in the Spa where all the treatment rooms have been carefully located in the landscape, maintaining the natural flora of this special site.

The tropical sun and rain challenges have been handled with large roof overhangs, shading the guest rooms from the harsh tropical sun, and protecting them from the torrential tropical rain storms. No roof gutters have been included. The rain is allowed to fall into the tropical landscape while all storm water drainage is collected from hard surfaces and is harvested to ensure that there is no additional site run-off into the sea lagoon, which is an environmentally protected area.