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.