Preliminary Design, 2015
Task: New Headquarters for Eramet-Comilog, Full Architectural Services
Study: Preliminary Studies, 2012
Status: On Hold
Dimension: 22.000 m²
Budget total: 30.000.000 USD
A golden Sail in an equatorial shoreline, at dusk
This project is a preliminary design to transform an existing resort htel of 120 rooms, formerly Accor Novotel, into a 150 rooms Decameron Hotel. The project location is along the shoreline of the Estuary of Libreville, the capital city of Gabon. Facing west is the Atlantic ocean, where the beach narrows and tide's currents dig with strength into the coastline, shrinking it through erosion. The blueprint of Marcello D'Olivo plan, the modernist Italian architect, is survived by the almost thirty kilometers waterfront boulevard facing west to the ocean that constitutes the dorsal spine of the city's urbanization. All prestigious built landmarks align along this line, and the former Accor Novotel is one of them. The scenery is famously home for striking dusk views framing orange sun rays through skinny silhouettes of tall palm trees against the backdrop of a burning golden horizon with an oversize sun sitting atop it.
The brief asked for a new façade, a slight increment of the resort capacity, improved beach design where outdoor amenities had to take advantage of beach fruition and the ocean view, and unleash the entended resort-like layback “dream life”. The proposal features a one-story elongated carved podium parallel to the boulevard, showcasing a street-faced commercial row of boutiques inviting passerby through in a way that allows a more transitional gradual welcome to the resort. This strip ends with an entrance canopy that marks the actual formal entrance to the hotel from a distance. It's a subtle strategy that permits the whole intervention to "give back" a certain level of urbanity to the city, otherwise absent to the brief. Perpendicular to the street and the low podium, an L shaped multistory double volume is the main feature of the composition. It's where the residential part of the hotel takes place. It comprehends the 150 rooms requested. This central volume has an outer second skin made of an ondulated stainless steel mesh, with a variable offset of 60cm to 2m from the main façade. The mesh acts as a sunshade reducer feature and has a rain forest landscape imprinted, only visible from afar, like a giant tapestry.
By the ocean, the beach is landscaped and widened. A pier for small boat decking completes the new coastline, reinforced by the new unique landscape of tide breakers boulders filled with sand. The overall result is the perfect backdrop from a layback resort-style world of amenities, comprising a pool, open bars, outdoor and indoor restaurants, beach life, etc. The golden tapestry wrapped volume adds up to the chain of seaside landmarks along the waterfront boulevard. More importantly, it symbolizes, at its best, the memorialized mood of a hot coastal equatorial sunset, visited by the long-sought breeze and a giant golden sail, with the sun atop the burning horizon. Echoes of pirated lands, when sailors vessels once appeared and vanished with locals treasure onboard, in dusks filled with melancholy.
