Silver Lake Sun Club Resort

Promoter: Silver Lake d.o.o., Serbia
Location: Silver Lake, Srebrno jezero, Serbia
Surface: 3.500 sqm
Year: 2008
Prize:
Chief Architect: Stefano Dosi
Team:
Claudia Cirolli
Collaborators:
Lucia Moretti, Kuce Beodom d.o.o., Milica Zotovic

Abstract

It's our proposal for an international competition helded by a serbian real estate company, regarding touristic premises in some 350 hectars naturalistic area, 120 km east of Belgrade, by the Danube river and facing a lake (Srebrno jezero). A 4/5 star resort-hotel of 3.500 sqm, 50 rooms and suites, pools, gym and a conference centre, is supposed to be built along with golf club, piers, nautic club, club house, residences and restaurants.

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Gallery

ground floor environmental insertion plan

REPORT

1. INTRO

Building into nature is a frequent challenge in the architectural field. Basically it can be solved in two different ways, each one offering different strenghts, just depending of the situation, needs, site morphology and amount of needed surface. One way is to divede the volume into smaller parts and giving each part something people expect from this sort of premises: natural look (mostly wood, stone etc) and known identity and typologies. It is a sort of vernacular-camouflage way of solving the problem and it is what people usually recognize as “into nature”. For instance, it is what industry have produced giving us those small wooden houses to put in our gardens for storage or kids. It’s also the reason why housing fences are normally green colored and why we put wooden “veranda” or “pergola” in the back or in front of our homes, even if it is just a modern and minimalist one. This way is the architecture we usually find in mountain places. Neither it impresses us, nor it fulfils our new and modern use and needs without being necessary different from what it should be. But we have to accept it. A modern building is contemporary not for its materials but for the way it solves our modern life needs.

And if it does, it is just half of the way.

The “users” of a building are indeed not only the ones who live, work, sleep, perform activities in it, but also the ones who surround it. From near or from a distance. So also the stroller, the person-who-goes-by, and in general all the people who come in touch with (or in sight of) the building, are de facto users. Planners should also take care of them. They (numerically) are the majority. They are the social base that the building is made for. Therefore architecture is all about solving a site toward a need, giving each user his own role in the play. Taking care of rules, static, experience, norms, which are all the “entry level”, the basic requirements, of architecture. But just satisfying them does not necessarily grant anything else. And this is the other half part we need to close the circle and complete the picture.

Let’s see how we did it.

The second way of approaching “building into nature” is to care about the site, the plot situation, the pre-existence and the general “soul” of that particular place. Building is, anyway, to invade a part of that place. To put something external, artificial in the middle of a “oh-my-god” stunning panorama. This is true for every kind of building, architecture, typology, materials and functions. So where is the difference of approach?

What it is necessary to remove ("natura naturalis") is paid back with a functional object that takes care of this “seizure” by referencing to pre-existence as a generative element of the whole project.

So we have lost some green, but the new premise reminds us of that. It uses just the stolen green to build not only volumes but also the identity of the place. We have taken advantage of a necessary operation (invasion) and led it to be our project identity maker. What we have lost we have given back in the form of identity. Nobody (neither the “real” nor the “external” user) can say that nature is not there anymore. It’s not about “mimesis”, not about camouflage. We declare the artificial nature: saying it, we honor and celebrate that defeated part. Acting this way we preserve the idea of what it was, giving it the new role of spokesman of the whole building concept. This is the first concept.

2. ROLE

As we saw, architecture needs to be the medium among the site, the needs, and the poetry. Human needs are not all about rules and normative. Needs regard also fulfilment of social and emotional quest. We do not live for rules, neither we want them as unique way of determination of our way of life or the way we have to interact with objects, scenarios or other people. But they become necessary. Not sufficient. We still have a manoeuvre space between rules and complete fulfilment of desires. This space is poetry. What ever it means to us. In life, texts, art, pictures, intimate relationships and many other fields. One of these is architecture.

So that everybody can “feel” and interact with a built object not only for its functional roles. It must generate dialog and a feeling of agreeability, relaxation and calmness. Of course architecture should be clever enough to provide answers for both the technical and the emotional sides. This is the second challenge.

3. DESCRIPTION

The proposal is a unique 2 storey high building (ground + one floor) with an underground level capable of all extra services, and a wonderful sundeck with pools and 360°views all over the woods and the surroundings. Therefore all rooms and services have been developed in a simple radial scheme. Structural needs and architecture coexist without any lack of identity.

If outside views are a leading must to feel the nature, 1.400 sqm and more of balconies and porches are its booster. If relaxation is the need, living the surrounding directly from inside the hotel is the solution.

All functions and spaces are organized around two “functional” voids. Between them and the fully glazed edge of the building, all services and areas are organized with functional strategies. The two voids let filtrated sun light come in without dazzle and enlight all inner spaces. Those voids are green courtyards at different levels. One hosts also the ground floor conference facilities.

Two wooden decks separate the three levels, another one closes the top. The proposal take care of all aspects needed and detailed in the brief.

Fifty rooms, divided into Club and Studio, from 25 to 27 sqm and from 42 to 47 sqm.

Ground floor services like conference hall for more than 150 seats, foyer, lobby, breakfast/cafeteria room convertible into business/meeting separate areas, offices, restrooms, wide protected entrance and above all a huge porch all around the building. The first 20 rooms are on this floors, being the Studio/Suites the corner ones. Also a near-to-entrance disabled room. Some comfortable parking lots are provided also near the entrance (deliveries, overnight, short stays etc). Green area is all around.

Stairs and two lifts connect ground to underground and first floors.

Underground level hosts car park (fully aerated) for 45/47 cars and all the services, both for customers (sauna, gym & fitness) and for the staff (laundry, deliveries, storage rooms, staff rooms, technical rooms etc). It has a direct secondary entrance for deliveries (without being seen) and for customers with car. A slope leads to street level. All underground floor take advantage of the difference of levels between the front (street) and the backyards (green). So it is a partially underground level, full of light and with an external open view from gym & fitness rooms.

First floor hosts all the remaining rooms (30) divided as usual into Club and Studio. Connections are all around the two glazed inner voids. A first level lobby lets people relax or wait outside their rooms. Studio/Suite are developed mainly in the corner (more inside space, more external deck surface). Note that it is possible to have an extra room keeping the others at their minimum extension, 25 and 42 sqm without modifying the building volume.

Upper sundeck is another extra of this premise. It hosts two circular wooden decks, a semi circular pool, some Jacuzzi minipools and a huge roof-garden. Stairs and lifts are the only closed spaces at this level. Due to their technical status they should not be considered as extra volume. Also maintenance is much safer and easier. Barbeque and sunset cocktail by the pool is a relaxing plus along with its 360° hi view.

4.COHERENCE

Themed-serigraphed double glazings runs all around the building with continuity. Inside/outside, natural/artificial, vertical/horizontal are the opposites to blend and to let coexist with coherence. Corrugated glass protect inside views where not necessary, services are however kept in the inner part.

A continuous ribbon of dot-pictured woods through seasons remarks vertical identity. Dot style serigraphy is optimal also because let people see through from nearby but not from a distance. And dot density can be varied from 0 to totally full.

Fluid verticality is broken by strong regular horizontal decks, which compositive aim is to strengthen the design of whole external views giving more importance to the rounded glazed walls, acting like picture frames. External colors: all wood forest palette (in all the seasons), white horizontal cladding and wooden deck floorings. White and greens emphasize each other. Low emissive glass gives more depth to the composition. Again smooth and rough surfaces determinate the play of generative play of contrasts.

All the design is made to achieve results in term of aesthetic, functionality and intimacy. Yet strong identity, coherence and quality follow. All regulations, norms and hospitality building standards are respected. Also structural solution is as simple as it perfectly suites the architectural needs. Armed concrete columns for the above ground floors plus armed concrete radial wall for the underground. All is studied for a perfect feasibility.

5. ROOMS IN DETAILS

Rooms develops all the ribbon external front and are divided in two types: Club and Studio. They both have full height glazings and porches or balconies with 360° woodforest views. The differences between the two are surface quantity and typologies of bathroom. Studio baths are divided in two parts (bath and wc), with the first one hosting both a Jacuzzi bathtub and a circular chromotherapy shower, all visible from the room through a darkened crystals. Typical Club and Studio room configurations could be seen in graphical design n.6, with all the characteristic both of the environment and of the furniture. Also colors and materials proposal are made to be compatible with overall design and identity. Different shades of green characterize textiles and seats, while whitened atmosphere acts as a calm space, being in contrast with the green verticality of the exterior wood views. Linear fireplaces complete the fifteen Studios asset.

Both the room types have plenty of space for storage, tea&coffee facilities, bar, seating space and some of them can host an added third bed.

In order to achieve maximum cost reduction, the rooms toilets and baths are partially precasted so that only two sides of the cells could be adapted to the different spatial connections, coming into building site as self-standing units just to put in place and connect with plumbings and room walls.

6. EXTRAS, ADDING FURTHER VALUE

A geothermic plant with vertical probes (up to 100 mt deep) permits heating and free-cooling, taking advantage of almost constant deep soil temperature. No need of gas or oil, no CO2 emissions, no noise, no un-aesthetic external machines and cooling is almost free of charge. All technical parts of the plant (pump, tank and connectors) are kept in semi-underground floor, with direct outdoor access for control, maintenance and safety. And this works fine with low temperatures radiant floors and walls heating systems.

Gym, fitness and spa rooms complete the offer for a contemporary resort with a high quality service and its contemporary requirements. Cafe area can be divided into meeting smaller spaces next to entrance, hall and conference facilities.

Cost for a 3.000 sqm premise in Serbia could not be less than 1.5/2.5 million euros. A lot depending on finishing and material but a strong part from “gross” structure, walls, internal partitions, glazings etc. Standardization in glass modules, precast wc cells, few materials lead all to further economies as the geothermic pump does for the thermal/cooling plant. All this effort should be detailed in a further design phase, considering cost-effectiveness as a method of refining the results achieved in this preliminary phase, together with choices of investors.

Plants operation is enchanced by thermal mass studies, optimized porosity configuration of the building and by renewable energy fonts like geo-thermic and solar panels. So comfort and energy saving attitude are both provided in our general “green-building” approach.

7. SURFACES PER FLOOR

UNDERGROUND

Parking space (n.45 lots, can be more) 1.140 sqm

Underground lobby and entrance 130 sqm

Spa, gym, fitness, restrooms 208 sqm

Delivery, laundry, storerooms, staff rooms 260 sqm

Technical spaces, hydro-thermal plants 45 sqm

Total underground garden courtyard 155 sqm

GROUND FLOOR

Hall, entrance 94 sqm

Lobby, foyer 150 sqm

Offices, staff restrooms 30 sqm