The architectural vision of the Ecuador artificial island is located at the intersection of the natural, the man-made and the oneiric. The forms are inspired by nature: a solar eclipse for the night club, a rough diamond for the hotel lobby and the language of the sea in the metaphor of the sailboat.
sailing Home – Inspired by the language of the sailboat, the serviced apartments are conceived as a continuous shiny wave that sweeps and trickles down towards the Pasha night club to the west and towards the creek to the east. The circulation passages that lead to the apartments are a subtle extension of the ground-level wooden platforms, creating a continuous promenade with covered resting areas and suspended gardens.
Diamond – The hotel lobby is the hidden jewel in the jungle. Located practically in the center of the island, its faceted volume is an echo of a roughly cut diamond. A wooden ramp slowly takes the pedestrian around the diamond to the elevated lobby level. Alternatively, an elevator-platform allows a cinematic vertical experience from the ground level of the garden to the foliage level. At the upper lobby level, the overwhelming transparency of the object allows the space to immerse in the surrounding nature, and at night, it invites at stargazing.
Immersion – The hotel rooms are wooden clad structures amidst the landscape. They are accessed by an elevated passage that branches out of the promenade that circulates around the lobby. The hotel residents overlook or cross the meandering river before accessing their rooms or continuing their way down to the garden…
Morning Light – Sandwiched between two walls, each seashore villa has a private garden and beach. The villa is conceived along a longitudinal lap pool that breaks into the reception areas at two instances and trickles down to the sea.
Running waters – In order to minimize the footprint on the water, the sea bungalow is constructed around a central column which serves the purpose of structure, servicing core, circulation and water feature. Sea water is pumped vertically to the top and trickles down gradually on the glazed surfaces of the central core, forming horizontal water surfaces on two levels: it creates, on the public level below, an outer swimming pool, and on the private level above, a mirror surface of water which extends the plane of the bedroom to the outside.
Eclipse – A mirage in the night. A glowing cloud hovers above the Arabian Gulf, at the edge of the sea. A mysterious shape appears, neither full, nor complete, like a silver moon. From a distance, the glowing roof signals the activities that are happening inside. Illumination, by color and intensity, indicates the type of activities and their location. As the events unfold in the night, the whole image of the club changes in a cinematic composition of light, shade and dancing silhouettes; and as the islanders leave the place at the break of dawn, the translucent skin of the roof acts this time as the filter of the first sunrays of the nascent daylight…