Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge by Nicholas Plewman Architects

Architects: Nicholas Plewman Architects
Location: Okavango Delta, Botswana
Year: 2014
Photographs: Dook

From the architect. A 24 bed luxury boutique hotel in the heart of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The Okavango Delta is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the African continent. Since the original lodge was built seventeen years ago, it has been declared a world heritage site and in consequence a raft of wholly appropriate, but formidable restrictions have been imposed on building there.

The design of Sandibe not only meets these challenges but is invigorated and inspired by them. It is habitation made manifest of all the creatures that have ever found or made shelter in and beneath the site’s ancient trees. The lodge draws its inspiration from animals that carry their shelter with them or weave it from the organic materials to hand. We chose the pangolin – Africa’s armadillo –as a specific motif because of its shy, elusive and completely harmless nature and its ability to curl into its own protective carapace of scales. The final building appears to have grown organically from its riparian site or, metaphorically speaking, to be some endemic, gentle and maternal creature leading her off spring through the swamp forest.

The completed project meets or exceeds all of the above imperatives:

Sandibe is built almost entirely of wood. Laminated pine beams give curvilinear shape. The building skin is formed like an inverted boat from layers of butt jointed pine scale planks; waterproofed with an acrylic membrane and covered in Canadian cedar shingles. There is no glass other than in the retail shop and library, the “glazing” such as it is, is Serge Ferrari Soltis fabric – a permeable but highly weather resistant and thermally efficient membrane.

All water and soil waste is collected and pumped through an accredited biological treatment plant that renders effluent certifiably safe for discharge into the highly sensitive environment. Finally, the environmental success of the project is perhaps best judged from the fact that the area’s prolific wildlife including big animals like elephant, hippo , lion and leopard have continued to live on and use the site with such disregard for the emerging and completed buildings that you might imagine they simply don’t see it at all. As IM Pei said: “ Good architecture lets nature in.”

Resources: archdaily