Studio MK27: Winner of World Design Awards 2022. How to build a space where hospitality provides romance and deep contact with nature but still boosts social encounters? How to lead people to really share with one another this extreme experience of one of the most remote places on the planet?

People naturally seek for complicity of others when going thru extraordinary days. Everyone in this island is connected by a common search and dedication to achieve one of the biggest archetypes in literature: the island. The ultimate metaphor for isolation allows people to do things they would not normally do. Without pressures of society, we go back to the basics of humanity; we’re linked to each other.

The hotel in the Maldives will provide a welcoming space for people to live light, to unleash creativity, amplify natural feelings in a dreamy state. For the past years, studio mk27 team had the privilege to imagine a shelter for a radical living experience, a temporary home in the exuberant infinite blues, wildlife and open skies.  The volumetric answers are extremely delicate, respectful to its surroundings, trying to provide shadows and coziness, to capture and amplify the landscape strength. The architectural lines never break the horizon, they speak low and elegantly. All buildings are visually permeable, melted, dematerialized, putting life and men in the center of the experience.

The island’s shape followed natural curves. The greens take care of almost all the island and determine a series of beaches and trails in the nature, erasing any traces of human gestures. The only built path, in wood, determines an axis that organizes the whole program for the hotel. On the left there are the main building and most of the villas. To the right, there’s the spa and the common spaces of the village and beach club.  The landscape ornaments the whole island, creates privacy for the villas and unfolds to highlight the most important common buildings, establishing a hierarchy of focuses to the different constructions.

After arriving, the guest goes takes the natural trails to reach his villa. A new aspect of the island arrives, the possibility for an immerse experience full of surprises, a promise of hidden treasures to be found.
The apprehension of a 1km circle begins. In 15 minutes from the main building, you can reach most of the beaches in the island, or you can run 5 km during sunset and gain its whole perimeter.

The SPA is an “island within the island”. A building invaded by skies and dense vegetation from all sides. The massage rooms can be floating boxes or inside the building, but still enjoying nice, framed views of the surroundings. Here you can almost forget that you are surrounding by water.

The atmosphere becomes more vibrant, cute and fun in the Village. Buildings fully melted in the sand, where you can’t feel the transition of the outside. The heart of the village, where people meet, do their footing, rent their scuba diving equipment, stop by casually to shop for fruits and flowers before heading to a boat tour. The community feeling reached in a place where everyone is united by the same.

The hotel is a kaleidoscope of atmospheres organized in an ascending way: from private to public, from isolation to belonging, from simplicity to sophistication. We escalate the textures and emotions from 0 to 100, from soft shadows to overwhelming light. It’s a rhythm with contrast, pauses and transparencies. From slow dolce far niente to exuberant real vitality, it is a place for people to bond with nature and each other, for people to experience the essential with glamour.

Project Details
Firm
Studio MK27

Architect/Designer
Marcio Kogan

Co-Architect
Renata Furnaletto

Interior Design
Diana Radomysler

Interior Design co-author
Pedro Ribeiro

Project Name
Pontiac Maldives Hotel

World Design Awards Category
Hospitality Built

Project Location
Maldives

Team
André Sumida . Carolina Klocker . Elisa friedmann . Gabriela chow . Gustavo ramos . Giovanni meirelles . Julia pinheiro . Lair reis . Luciana antunes . Renato perigo . Regiane leão . Renata scheliga . Ricardo ariza . Mariana ruzante . Samanta cafardo . Suzana glogowski . Thauan miquelin7

Country
Maldives

Photography ©Credit
©Fernando Guerra

Studio MK27 located in the chaotic city of São Paulo was founded in the late 70’s by architect Marcio Kogan and today is comprised of 50 architects and various collaborators worldwide. The architects of the team, great admirers of the Brazilian modernism generation, seek to fulfill the task of rethinking and giving continuity to this iconic architectural movement. The projects of Studio MK27 place value on formal simplicity and are elaborated  with extreme care and attention to details and finishings. 

Kogan is an honorary member of the AIA (American Institute of Architecture), Professor at Escola da Cidade in São Paulo and Politecnico di Milano, considered by Época magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential persons in Brazil, is part of “Wallpaper’s 150 Famous for 15 Years”, and came in 39th in Dezeen’s Hot List 2017. 

He leads a team of architects who, for the most part, have been working with him for over a decade.
Since 2001, when he started a co-creation and cooperative work system at the office, studio mk27 has won more than 250 national and international awards, such as: IAB (Institute of Brazilian Architects), São Paulo Architectural Biennial, WAF, Architectural Review, Dedado Minosse, Record House, Leaf, D&AD, Spark, Barbara Cappochin, Iconic, AZ, Buenos Aires Ibero-americana Architectural Biennial, Wallpaper Design Award and Prix Versailles.

The Studio team has lectured and workshops at the Royal Academy of Arts, AIA, Société Française des Architectes, Clubovka, FAU-USP, Mackenzie, FAAP, Politecnico di Milano, Mantova, Porto Academy, Verona, Valencia, South Florida, Rice, Texas, Cornell and Yale universities among others. In 2012 studio mk27 represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale, which meant some extra kilos for the group of 10 architects who went for a gondola ride.