Croatia / HVAR
The design is already there — you have to tease it out of the land.
— John Goldwyn
1 / PROJECT BACKGROUND
In my humble opinion, the Croatian island of Hvar boasts one of Europe’s most spectacular coastlines. It is an exquisite and immaculate space. A 30 minute boat ride from Split, its image is typically driven by its nightlife reputation as the Ibiza of Croatia, albeit with accommodation that is still a mix of campsites and three star hotels.
Our clients had a radical vision to elevate this reputation, by creating a high-end luxury eco resort that showcased Hvar’s beautiful attributes – characterised by olive trees, private beaches and crystal-clear seas to swim in. They had sought to bring this vision to life for several years, considering and rejecting multiple plans. Finally, Studio Wild 15 were able to present them with a concept which they could fully embrace. A plan that did what the client dreamed of - creating a story that will become Hvar’s next chapter.
2 / APPROACH AND VISION
Our idea was to create a range of different experiential elements - all connected by the water. Logistically, you would travel to Hvar from the mainland by ferry or a private launch, and the water would take you to three different experiences on the site. Each distinct and unique in themselves as products - a super luxury Bay Hotel, a Coastal Retreat and to the rear of the site, a new space called The Farm.
As per our core principles of connecting and collaborating with nature and history, our starting point was to figure out how to work with this incredible natural landscape and historical features - constructed terraces of olive trees that had been there for more than two centuries; a wealth of beautiful natural stone walls and walkways that we would utilise rather try to replace; and the network of farm tracks and dirt roads that over time had integrated harmoniously with the forests and trees.
We were thrown into this project very quickly and found ourselves doing a lot of the initial sketching whilst on that first site visit. Being a keen open water swimmer led me to the breakthrough inspiration for the core design idea as I jumped into the sea and swam along the coastline of the resort.
It was as I surveyed the underwater landscape in the crystal clear sea, that I noticed these extraordinary rock formations under the sea that continued up onto the land. The continuity of these spectacular rock formations and their innate connection with this land became my obsession.
I was fixated on creating a master plan in which the land, the buildings and water all became one. So when looking at the buildings from the sea, it would appear like a settlement that had been there since mediaeval times, with buildings that merged seamlessly into the rock formations. The effect would be that everything looks like it’s cascading into the crystal clear water of the sea.
Working with the existing terracing of the site meant we were able to position each unit to have its own unique view, with each unit having a place in the amphitheatre of the site. The agricultural terraces also serve as an organising factor for the roads which are merely expanded versions of the existing farm tracks.
The proportions of the coastline and bays were observed to be an extremely ‘sweet’ scale of luxury. Everything is complemented by backlands which proved ideal for conceiving an abundant productive landscape that could provide farm-to-table experiences and host incredible events.
3 / ASSEMBLING THE WORLD CLASS TEAM
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MARCUS EMERSON
Economist
It’s pretty standard for Master Planners to work with economists in the early stages of the master planning process. It’s highly unusual to work as closely with an economist as we have done, and for their input to play such an influential part in shaping the design and creating such an innovative and bespoke business model for the resort.
Marcus is a highly innovative economist who enjoys our experimental Studio Wild15 philosophy but also brings the rigour in his modelling that gives clients the necessary confidence to embrace his product ideas. It was his thinking that led to the creation of our “hotel without a hotel” concept for the site. This allows the residents to enjoy all the features of a hotel whilst on site, and lease their units back to the management company as a ‘pool’ of units which form a hotel inventory and thus guarantee a return on their investment. It also ensures that the developer has less of a capex outlay due to building only the residences for sale and the ‘public areas’ of the hotel.
LAURA MORALES
Interior Architect
Later in the project I engaged Laura Morales, an Interior Architect formerly a partner with Foster+Partners. Laura has played a brilliant complementary role, taking my broad design themes and bringing them into the finer details of the architectural imagery and mood.
Her perspective constantly gravitates towards the perspective of the individual guest’s experience at a granular level, whether sitting on their individual balcony or in the dining room for breakfast. For this particular project, she has brought her focus to details such as the texture of the tiles people will experience if they walk out barefoot onto their hotel room balcony or whether the handrail touched on the steps to the beach should be made of glass or timber.
Her expertise in space planning, furniture and materiality gives her an innate understanding of how the small elements affect how a guest interacts with and experiences the space. These are the distinctive sensorial details that add up not only to the creation of distinctive and memorable experience, but to the details that weave everything together into a successful project.
AARON MINSON & KIRSTY RUTHERFORD
Master Planners & Landscape Architects
Aaron is someone I’ve had the privilege to work with for over two decades. He brings an extraordinary level of design flair with an innovative application of technology, two distinct and highly valuable skills rarely found in one individual! He’s enabled us to rapidly integrate a lot of new software that other practices still don’t use. The result is we can provide visualisation capabilities that few other firms can match, such as our use of VR on site to enable our clients to fully understand the site features. Aaron has an absolute passion for accuracy which is achievable to extreme levels thanks to his skill and passion for geo-location. Inaccuracy costs time and money, and his work on visualising topography in three dimensions for example, that is millimetre accurate, has made him both highly respected and appreciated. Accuracy helps our clients to fully see the potential of a site while guiding where not to develop based on protecting fragile geologies and view corridors. Aaron also reconnected me to Kirsty Rutherford (an extremely talented landscape designer and long time collaborator) via our global virtual studio. Kirsty assists with the illustrative plans and brings an attention to ecological detail that seems intrinsic to her being a New Zealander, living in the wilderness!
Dr AUDREY TANG
Mental Health Expert
We worked with Dr Audrey Tang to understand the science behind the intrinsic ‘wellness’ that we infused through the designs. As an academic, Audrey helped us to synthesise the science of the way that people react to spaces with our plans for the site. As her research is at the cutting edge, rather than following typical industry soundbites, Audrey reminded us that some people thrive on retreats; whereas others regain their stillness and energy through far more social situations. This allowed us to create social hubs within the site as well as quiet places for reflection and solace.
4 / INSPIRING POSITIVE SUSTAINABILITY
Our commitment to the preservation and protection of the landscape and history that is already there focused on three key areas - minimising new road infrastructure, protecting existing trees, and celebrating the way of life in which the land is already being used.
We have minimised the road infrastructure by following the lines of the agricultural roads that are already there. We have used the existing clearings through the trees and dirt tracks and demonstrated how they can remain as farm tracks rather than fully tarmaced surfaces because they are an essential part of the character of the island.
New road construction generates environmental impacts on many dimensions and imposes significant additional financial costs. By gaining a deep understanding of the topography of the island, we were able to preserve the character of the site, minimise cut and fill and hence reduce costs for construction.
There are tens of thousands of trees on site which we have protected through specific drawings, setting out all the correct measures for tree protection. Even when it comes to construction and laying out the buildings we have produced lifesize mockups on site that can be formed around stands of trees.
Our most imaginative example of positive sustainability is in how we’ve designed the third element of the project, which is an area of land to the rear of the site where there are restrictions preventing any building. That restriction has allowed us to conceive of something highly unique, called The Farm, again inspired by looking at the past, and reviving that land to create a working farm, and how people used to come together from the land.
We thought, why not build community, help build all the new stories and create the space for communal experience to happen? We can grow food in this space, create a farm to fork restaurant here, and make it part of the guest experience. The cuisine in this part of the world is very, very special, so why not celebrate that? Why not have a seafood restaurant, but not one which needs to have sashimi tuna flown in from Japan, but uses what is caught fresh from the sea that day, following the ancestral traditions of the island?
5 / PROJECT STATUS (as of February 2024)
I always work with a local team to ensure that ideas are translated effectively into local code and restrictions. Following an intensive design process, the project is currently being assembled by the Croatian team to be submitted for UPU (planning permissions) with a view to proceed with selected investors later this year. Typically a submission process like this will take around 6 months, and the project will leap back into life when it has been through this process. We will simultaneously start to present the project to potential hotel operators, with a view to getting them onboard in advance of the next stages.