¿Sostenible?: Hotel Aliah / Hiperstudio + Arkiz

Courtesy of Hiperstudio + Arkiz

The Aliah Project, a hotel for a green World Cup, designed by Hiperstudio + Arkiz has been awarded as the winner of a competition organized by Aliah, a company which promotes sustainable development through practices and businesses that are profitable with a positive socio-environmental impact. A sustainable luxury hotel complex for the 2014 World Cup, their design serves as a model of sustainable architecture by disseminating innovative concepts that promote a green lifestyle. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Courtesy of Hiperstudio + Arkiz

1. The hotel as a space of rapprochement between man and environment

The processes of urbanization and industrialization that led to the formation of our society, on the one hand produced an amazing universe of facilities for the modern man, on the other hand sacrificed much of his relationship with nature and the environment. As this process intensifies, the effects of this detachment are felt through increased pollution, the inevitable scarcity of natural resources, and loss of quality of life in large urban centers.

Courtesy of Hiperstudio + Arkiz

The growing awareness of the issue of environmental sustainability – also increased by the social and economic aspects – provides opportunities for important initiatives to promote rapprochement between man and natural environment. Sustainability is not just a matter of strategies and specific actions, but of intrinsic values: it requires the adoption of a new attitude towards the world.

Courtesy of Hiperstudio + Arkiz

2. The landscape as the protagonist

The Aliah Project aims to be not only a comfortable and innovative hotel, but a transcendental space, where visitors are encouraged to re-evaluate their attitude in favor of a better, healthier and more balanced way of life. The proposed architecture for the Aliah Project seeks to put these concepts into focus, restoring essential and timeless values that underlie the interaction between humans and the environment, and thereby promoting opportunities for contemplation, walking and meditation.

Courtesy of Hiperstudio + Arkiz

Based on this premise, a linear plaza-belvedere was designed as a structural and poetic gesture of the project concept. This plaza, arranged along the arrival axis, is a strong element as it coordinates the access to the hotel and convention center and leads to the discovery of the architectural experience integrated with the surrounding landscape.

site plan

3. Architectural language translating sustainability

We chose to place the hotel complex near the higher ground in a longitudinal axis along the land`s ridge, accommodating itself on the natural topography and providing beautiful views towards the landscape. The sensitive analysis of this region is reflected in the way in which the building interacts with the ground, establishing a dialectical relationship in which architecture acts as a physical support for contemplation.

design diagrams

The open corridors that serve the rooms of the hotel embrace a central leafy patio, emphasizing the presence of vegetation, transcending the mere function of connection to become a tour through the high treetops. The architectural language of the project seeks to highlight the different strategies of sustainability and environmental comfort liabilities that were employed, demonstrating the solutions involved to achieve high environmental performance while ensuring the energy efficiency and resource savings.

Architects: Hiperstudio + Arkiz
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Team: Alexandre Hepner, João Paulo Payar, Matheus Marques, Rafael Brych, Ricardo Felipe Gonçalves
Year: 2012