As commitments to sustainability continue to soar in settings that transcend the conventional wellness sphere, the concept of holistic design is evolving into something more resilient, whether by ramping up energy conservation or revitalizing landscapes to enhance living conditions. These ambitious projects and concepts—a mix of hospitality, residential, and urban developments—are sparking powerful relationships with communities through healthy, creatively built environments.
Little Island
New York
Once a hub for ritzy ocean liners, Pier 55, located on the Hudson River, was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Soon, the rebuilt waterfront site will open adjacent to New York’s Meatpacking District as the decidedly more democratic Little Island, an initiative of businessman-philanthropist Barry Diller and the Hudson River Park Trust.
Designed by London’s Heatherwick Studio and locally based landscape architecture firm MNLA, Little Island brings together a meandering park and botanical garden with a smattering of outdoor performance venues. “This important role of nature is something we’ve been exploring on many of our projects,” says Mat Cash, partner and group leader at Heatherwick Studio. “More than making people feel better, there is science that shows nature has important restorative effects.”
To instill this feeling at Little Island, a bridge transitions visitors from the shore to the floating retreat, which is propped up on 132 sculpted concrete columns of differing heights, their shapes reminiscent of coupe glasses. Heatherwick Studio founder Thomas Heatherwick was initially struck by the wooden remnants of piers jutting out from the river that hinted at New York’s industrial past, and that image compelled him and his team to envision Little Island’s topography as a rising, undulating patchwork of planters. Within, MNLA stitched together a landscape of seating lawns, sloping hills, and hundreds of trees, shrubs, and grasses.
“While our studio certainly didn’t foresee the pandemic when we designed the concept,” says Cash, “the completion of Little Island is timely in a period when many city dwellers crave green space.”
Cocoon Resort & Spa
Tulum, Mexico
As a child, Aryanour Djalali had the good fortune of visiting different countries and learning about myriad cultures. “Each trip brought something new to my life. It could have been something simple, like a shape, a word, or a material, but those little details led to big projects,” recalls the founder and CEO of DNA Barcelona Architects. “Travel enriched me and gave me ideas on how I can connect people and architecture.”
For Djalali, the creative process is always grounded in nature. Consider the Cocoon Resort & Spa, a planned mixed-use development in Tulum, spanning 167 guestrooms, 204 apartments, and 16 private villas aptly set in curved, cocooning structures. Strewn with gardens and terraces, the concept is an eco-conscious hideaway that takes cues from the neighboring sea and forest while showcasing a commitment to sustainability through the implementation of a rainwater collection system and solar panels.
“The colors we chose were derived from natural elements, such as the brown of tree bark. We also designed swimming pools with green water to better associate them with the ponds found in jungles,” Djalali explains. Evoking cenotes—the underwater sinkholes on the Yucatán Peninsula spawned from collapsed rock that were sacred to the ancient Mayans—these pools are also imbued with a sense of spirituality. Views of Tulum can be savored from a panoramic “nest,” a motif that plays a starring role. “It represents a place where we feel embraced and protected, reminding us of childhood,” he says.
La Vallée Verte
Bordeaux, France
Close to the Garonne river in Bordeaux, Rotterdam-based architecture and urbanism practice MVRDV has developed a masterplan for the mixed-use, sustainable Bastide-Niel neighborhood. An extension of the city center, these regenerated barracks and railyards will also encompass the residential project La Vallée Verte. Set on a triangular plot, it’s composed of three futuristic buildings, their façades and roofs clad in white tiles that “create a reflective light shell,” says Charlotte Kientz, project leader in the Paris office.
Contrasting with these smooth, shiny streetside exteriors, the structures all have seemingly hollowed-out innards that are designed to energize residents. By “cutting into the volume, every apartment gets at least two hours of sunshine every day,” explains Kientz. These angles also reveal private terraces lined with pots of various sizes that teem with greenery that pop against full-height windows accented with dark joinery. Mirroring a valley landscape, La Vallée Verte anchors residents in a “vegetation microcosm,” in the midst of the city, Kientz says.
Most notably, the trifecta of housing units intersects with a void sphere, forming an inner courtyard dubbed the crater, says Kientz, “a special place full of plants, like a 3D park for its inhabitants.” Mixing concrete walls and pebbles, it resembles an excavation, she adds, “almost like a Gordon Matta-Clark art piece.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s April 2021 issue.
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