International design studio Architects of Invention have released a concept proposal for a resort and spa created by biomimicry.
Located on Mahe Island in the Seychelles, the Coral Hotel would feature several restaurants, apartments, a club-house with a pool, a private marina and a spa complex housed within a structure that resembles a sea creature or coral formation.
“This is a new type of a biomimetic architecture that seeks solutions for sustainability in nature, not by replicating natural forms, but by understanding the rules governing those forms – it follows a set of principles of combination of unit through a script translated into a form,” said the studio in a statement.
The designers began the project by examining coral, its models, systems and processes of growth. The resultant form has no beginning or end. Instead it forms a line of different curving shapes, each which acts as an individual organism.
If built, the hotel will have four floors and a gross floor area of 15,000sq m (161,500sq ft).
Architects of Invention have collaborated on the project with architecture studios DSA and WOW, landscape designer HED and structural engineering firm Engenuiti. The proposed budget has been set at US$10m (€8.8m, £6.7m).
The possibilities offered by biomimicry are increasingly being explored, and a sub-species of sea urchin recently inspired a group of German architects, designers, engineers and biologists
to develop an intricate robotically-produced pavilion.
