BHN speaks to Louis Thompson, CEO at Nomadic Resorts, about experiential travel and how luxury is changing.
Filmed at GIOHIS, the Gulf and Indian Ocean Hotel Investors’ Summit.
“Cities have been isolating and expensive for a long time, but because of their strong economies, they have been hard to leave,” said Colin O’Donnell, the founder of Kibbo. The company blends van life and community with a membership model to create an on-the-road collective of digital nomads across the country. “Now, after a year of quarantine and with the opportunity to work from anywhere, people want to travel and live in beautiful natural locations with a tight-knit community, without giving up their job,” he said.
Many of the most fascinating nomadic designs come from around the world, inspirational architects and designers who foresee a need for future shelter and community. These designs are some of the most outrageous and yet oddly practical.
Nomadic Resorts
Nomadic Resorts is a design company that uses an integrated approach to architecture, landscape, and interior design to create sustainable projects that fit organically into their natural surroundings and serve as a bridge to connect nature, culture, and people. The Looper is an eco-suite that can easily be installed in jungles, mountains, deserts, or beaches.
The pre-fabricated pods are made from a lightweight tensile fabric stretched over a modular steel frame, a thick layer of recycled PET (plastic water bottles) insulation, and anti-viral internal liner fabric. The envelope is typically fitted out with sustainable bamboo flooring, porthole windows, and double-glazed facades, providing panoramic views and plenty of natural lights. The caterpillar cocoon-like interior can be equipped with a generous bathroom, an air-conditioned sleeping area, a lounge, a small office space with wifi, and a generous outdoor deck.
Louis Thompson, CEO of Nomadic, explains, “The Looper is the ideal environment for digital nomads in the new normal –combined with the appropriate sustainable technology, it can harness natural energy sources and harvest rainwater to offer an off-grid tiny home without compromising comfort, security or lifestyle.”
Tourism is opening up once again in countries all over the world, with companies and travellers alike seeking ways to adapt to the changing situation while ensuring safe measures are also in place. Design company Nomadic Resorts recently unveiled their newest creation – Seedpods designed for sleeping and dining that allow travellers to escape from the city and offer a unique opportunity to sleep outdoors and reconnect with Mother Nature in a comfortable way.
With the company’s first dining pods just installed at the Heritage Nature Reserve in Mauritius, plans are in place for more to be rolled out and used in different locations by different resorts in the future. The concept corresponds with social distancing regulations, and the Seedpod is made from easily cleaned, hygienic materials that can be quickly and easily disinfected compared to hotel rooms.
“The psychological and economic impacts of the coronavirus and subsequent lockdown will be far-reaching: people will obviously re-evaluate their notions of personal space, work, family and hygiene; but they will also reconsider food security, travel, wellbeing and their relationship with nature. A new form of travel will arise,” Nomadic Resorts said.
The pod can also resist wind speeds of 120km per hour, and can be installed in remote locations without the use of heavy machinery or power tools. The pod can be either hung from trees or erected on its own tripod and equipped with lighting, a ceiling fan, a cool box and a charging station for devices making it an ideal option for hiking trails, surf camps or silent safaris.
“The Seedpod has been developed as a low-impact, sustainable hospitality model , to accommodate the rise of experiential travel, eco-tourism, wellness retreats and alternative lodging trends. The idea is that sleeping in the pod, is a transformative experience in its own right – a chance to spend a night in a human nest where you can see the movement of the wildlife around you and hear the sounds of the forest,’’ the company said.
designboom
if you’re fed up with social distancing in the city and looking to reconnect with nature, nomadic resorts’ ‘seedpod‘ initiative could be a dream come true. with its low impact structure and soothing cocoon-like shape, this latest project from the hospitality design company offers travelers the opportunity to sleep in the great outdoors without compromising on comfort.
after years of research, the first working pod prototypes were installed at bel ombre nature reserve in mauritius in 2019. louis thompson, CEO of nomadic resorts explains: ‘our goal was to take inspiration from the humble seed, to create a floating hotel room that was both ephemeral and robust – comfortable but exciting to sleep in. the idea is that sleeping in the pod, is a transformative experience in its own right – a chance to spend a night in a human nest where you can see the movement of the wildlife around you and hear the sounds of the forest’.
the pop-up resort concept caters for a new form of travel, which focuses on more sustainable and authentic experiences. as COVID-19 has made many people re-evaluate their lifestyles, the seedpod presents a low impact, sustainable model to accommodate the rise of experiential travel, eco-tourism, wellness retreats and alternative lodging trends. at nomadic resorts, they want to create a hospitality revolution by designing a new generation of tented camps that can be quickly and cheaply set up in remote locations under their new operating brand nomadic escapes.
louis thompson adds ‘the recent crisis has changed the whole notion of hospitality. our team has been striving to find a symbiotic, harmonious relationship between the sites we develop and the comfort of our guests. to achieve that we needed to find a compromise between durability and sustainability, environmental integrity, personal hygiene and guest comfort – size was an important consideration, as we needed to create a concept that corresponds with the new low-touch economy and social distancing regulations – the seedpod is made from easily cleaned, hygienic materials and can be quickly and easily disinfected compared to a traditional hotel room’.
the pod can be either hung from trees or erected on its own tripod and equipped with lighting, a ceiling fan, a cool box and a charging station for devices, making it an ideal option for hiking trails, surf camps or silent safaris. the form of the structure was a critical consideration for the team – the natural shape of a seed is inherently aerodynamic: when their team of membrane engineers introduced the structure into their computer wind model it showed that using a small number of structural rings, combined with a new generation architectural fabric, the pod can resist windspeeds of 120kmh, so guests are safe even if a big storm hits.
the other critical consideration was installation – the team wanted to be able to quickly and quietly install the pods in remote locations without using heavy machinery or power tools, therefore reducing costs. having worked in remote wilderness camps throughout africa, nomadic resort COO neil hendrikz explains: ‘our idea was to create a structural system that could be installed using manpower only on virtually any terrain, anywhere on the planet within a day that could last at least for a decade’.
‘Seeds, by their very nature, are full of potential’ claims creative director olav bruin ‘so we created a multifunctional interior that can easily be converted from a seating arrangement during the day into a sleeping arrangement during the night. this way we are utilizing the full potential of the relatively compact space. the seedpods can be accompanied by a fully equipped pop-up bathroom with shower, toilet, washbasin and wardrobe to complete the ultimate back to nature camping experience in style. over the coming years we hope to see our seedpod family adapt, expand and evolve.’ you can find out more information and purchase the pods directly from nomadic resorts’ website here.
We were honoured with winning the prestigious Architecture Master Prize for the design of Wild Coast Tented Lodge. The project’s Interior Designers from Bo Reudler Studio attended the ceremony in the famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to collect the award on our behalf.
Dezeen promotion: a historic hotel in China and a cocoon-like guest lodge in Sri Lanka are among the hospitality projects commended in this year’s AHEAD Asia Awards.
Celebrating design-focused hospitality projects from across the globe that provide exceptional guest experiences, submissions to the AHEAD Awards programme are divided into four regions: Asia, Americas, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa.
Entries were reviewed by a judging panel made up of leading hoteliers, architects, interior designers and industry commentators.
The 2019 Asia winners were announced in a ceremony at Singapore’s Andaz Hotel, all praised by AHEAD Awards founder Matt Turner for “reflecting the region’s rich cultural history and dynamic modernity”.
Sri Lanka’s Wild Coast Tented Lodge designed by Nomadic Resorts scooped the Resort Hotel award. Surrounded by dryland forests, the hotel comprises of a series of round, cocoon-style tents that are meant to resemble the boulders seen in the surrounding landscape.
The Seed Pod by Nomadic Resorts floating above the endemic forest in Mauritius. The pod is suspended on steel cables from the surrounding trees without causing any damage to the landscape.
Culture and commercial architecture: two domains that are often depicted as contradictory. Indeed, commerce is associated with utilitarian functionalism, immediacy, playing it safe, and an impoverished style. Whilst culture is associated with beauty, creativity and a disinterested ideal. Naturally, this opposition is not systematic, and there are many high quality examples of their coexistence. However, such examples remain a rarity. The end goal of the Prix Versailles is to alter this state of affairs by merging these opposites together.
This perceived contradiction is emblematic of a stage in the modern era that is on the brink of becoming outdated. The new period into which we are entering demands quality in all things: culture needs to break out of its ivory tower, without overlooking commercial aspects. Conversely, commerce must progressively adopt the goals of environmentalism, quality, creativity and innovation. Where we saw disjunction before, today’s era calls for conjunction.
The Prix recognizes the most remarkable structures, in terms of both interior and exterior architecture.
Because the Prix is associated with Versailles, we want that world renowned symbol of beauty and elegance to serve not as a model but as a beacon or impetus for quality commercial architecture, today and tomorrow.
The Prix Versailles is an original programme with the very clear aim of fostering better interaction between the economy and culture. It underlines the role economic agents can play, in all sectors, to enhance, embellish and improve living environments.
This everyday architecture can be a lever for sustainable development where ecological (green economy), social and cultural (purple economy) dimensions intersect.
Our Creative Director Olav Bruin attended the award ceremony in Hong Kong to receive the Gold and the Grand Award Sustainability.
The DFA Awards are the flagship program of the Hong Kong Design Centre, celebrating impactful and outstanding designs with Asian perspectives.