LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE WRITTEN BY ADRIAN TUMANG PHOTOGRAPHED BY MIKE CUEVAS OF STUDIO 100 Paradise Found
Be Grand Resort is one of Alcazaren s favorite projects so far. He recalls, We were involved early enough and we had an architect who was easy to talk to and who understood planning principles because his father was a planner. We also had open-minded clients, who embraced the concept from the start and did everything they could in terms of budget to achieve it. (Image courtesy of LIPAD Aerial Photography) Paulo Alcazaren s Be Grand Resort in Bohol gives guests an experience of a beach resort without a beach esigning environments is one thing; designing experiences is another. Though the latter is a more holistic and demanding undertaking, designers are not short on tools and techniques to turn a dull place to one that etches lasting impressions in the minds of those who visit it. Design can, through the skillful arrangement and composition of elements in space, and the manipulation of light and sound, scale and proportion, render a place transcendent. The best designers understand that individuals respond to their settings, connecting visual cues from the environment to their personal expectations. Take the Be Grand Resort in Panglao, Bohol. Designed by Paulo Alcazaren, the 5-hectare resort sits without its own beachfront in an island filled with beach resorts. But that does not matter as Alcazaren has managed to create value where there was none, and concoct an experience guests aren t likely to forget long after their holiday hangover has worn off. Entry and experience All sites are different, explains Alcazaren, You have to bring out the potential of the site, which if attacked only from the point of view of architecture and engineering, could still fall flat. He points out that sense of arrival is one of the first and crucial things to consider as it sets the tone for the entire experience of a place. A great sense of arrival draws oohs and ahhs from the get-go. In Be Grand Resort, the sweeping driveway from the entrance to the drop-off, reminiscent of the Manila Polo Club, builds up this sense of anticipation. Surrounded by foliage, the driveway meanders through existing trees and clumps of bamboo allowing for a picturesque drive. The driveway leads to a roundabout where guests are dropped off at the welcome pavilion, furnished with lamps and pieces designed by Kenneth Cobonpue. BluPrint 107 41
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Upon arrival, guests are greeted by an expansive lobby sporting a warm and contemporary interior with lamps and furniture pieces by Cobonpue. A low-ceilinged and warmly-lit foyer provides an interesting counterpoint and transition to the spacious and high-ceilinged lobby and reception area, and a lanai that frames a scenic view of the expansive pool and garden area below, and a glimpse of the sea beyond. From here, a grand staircase provides access to the pool and amenity areas, and leads visitors to the wet dining space reminiscent of Villa Escudero s famed waterfalls restaurant, minus the waterfalls. The pool and garden area cover more than half a hectare and divide the resort into two main clusters. On the west is the five-storey main pavilion with 189 guest rooms and suites. Designed by Luijo Nakpil, son of renowned planner Angel Nakpil, the building houses a game room, business center, fitness gym, and gift shop. While the architecture isn t very remarkable, it does keep people s attention on the amenities on the ground. The inner courtyards and hallways are filled with murals depicting tourist attractions in Bohol by artist and Alcazaren s brother, Johnny. On the east are 20 luxury villas, connected by pools. The client loves the concept of the lagoon pools in Bali where you can swim to your neighbors, so that became our inspiration, says Alcazaren. This concept lends itself well to the lay of the land, which slopes naturally. The villas are grouped in three tiers facing the sea single-storey couple villas sit on the lowest tier, while two-storey family villas occupy the upper tiers. This arrangement ensures that each villa has a view of the sea. Opposite top: Be Grand Resort kept 60% of the existing trees on site. Some palm trees and shrubs were already there, but some had to be transferred. The new trees are supported by tukod to help establish their root balls. The tukod will be removed after a year. We kept a lot of existing vegetation and enhanced it with additional palms and native species of flora, says Alcazaren. Opposite left: The wet dining area allows guests to eat in an al fresco setting by the pool while their feet are immersed in the cool shallow waters. Opposite right: The Bridge was originally intended to be a plain roof bridge like those in Madison County, but the client decided to turn it into a resto bar. It is fronted by the scuba diving training pool with portholes underneath, which cascades to the Olympic sized main pool measuring 50 meters wide. There s a swim-up bar at the side, where the client intends to place a drop screen in the future to project movies. 42 BluPrint
Alcazaren points out that sense of arrival is one of the first and crucial things to consider as it sets the tone for the entire experience of a place. BluPrint 107 43
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Be Grand Resort has four accommodation types the Deluxe rooms with beach and pool views, the Deluxe Aqua and Deluxe Oceana rooms with balconies overlooking the pool or shore, and the Oceana Suite with its own living room, pantry, and work station. Water features and amenities Be Grand Resort has limited access to the sea as the adjacent Alona Beach ends just outside the property. Because Bohol is a coral-rich island, sea urchins scatter over the coast fronting the site. Recognizing that this is part of the natural seascape of the province, Alcazaren tells his client, Look, if we want to create a tourism destination, we just have to build a lot of pools. If you go to the most exclusive hotel resorts in Bali, most people there, especially foreigners, don t swim in the sea. They just sunbathe in the beach and swim in fresh water pools, perhaps because they don t like to get sticky. The 5,000-square meter area for pools, water features, and gardens at the center holds the place together and serves as the anchor around which all the buildings are organized. They are connected by meandering walkways prodding guests to walk ever slowly in order to experience the place fully and enjoy the various points of interest in the area. In terms of legibility, every walkway leads back to the center where the main pool is so it s fairly easy to orient oneself without getting lost. Though man-made, Alcazaren had all water features seemingly connected. If there s a source, there must be a destination. I ve seen resorts with waterfalls in the middle of nowhere, but how did the water get there? While the pools and water features in Be Grand Resort have a sense of connection, they vary in elevation so that the water not only flows but cascades from one into another. It s the same when you design a building, the spaces have to flow, says Alcazaren. However, in reality, the pools are not connected and have separate systems, because it would be too expensive to circulate the water and too difficult to keep clean. See those bridges? he asks, Those are false bridges. The water appears to be passing through underneath. People respond to something that makes natural sense. Infinity edge beach Apart from the pools, Alcazaren introduced the concept of the infinity edge beach, similar to the infinity edge pool where water is allowed to flow over the edge to make it appear to be merging with the sky or the sea. With the infinity edge beach, he created a 150-meter stretch of elevated beachfront on the edge of the low seaside cliff. Because it s elevated and the sand is allowed to cover and flow over the cliff s edge, the eye reads it as a beachfront along the coast. If you are on the beach, and you look straight at the sea, it appears that the sand is the beach, he says. The sand, thankfully, is not imported from anywhere Above: The stainless steel railings by the beach seem out of place. Placed there for safety, they were supposed to be wrapped with woven rattan (the signature material of Cobonpue), but the contractor didn t know how to effectively attach the rattan as it would require drilling and stainless steel bolts. Righ: The Lune, a rooftop bar on the main pavilion, wasn t part of the original design brief. When the building was completed, the project team went up and saw the beautiful sunset. They decided to put an elevated sunset deck. Alcazaren shared, At first, it was just for sunset viewing because we could not put anything with permanent roof without first securing a building permit. However, the space turned out to be one of the most the popular in the resort, so the client eventually put up a dining area there. 44 BluPrint
Alcazaren believes that site planning has become the weakness and bane of most architects whose attention is often limited to the building FOOtprint and how the project s space requirements fit inside. what looks like white beach sand that covers roughly 2,000 square meters is actually coral limestone from the site excavation. Keeping it wild As much as possible, the spaces are defined by soft edges shrubs, trees, bodies of water, and other forms of natural barrier. The entire development is fenced off by perimeter walls planted with climbers, and the back of the house is screened off by lush flora. The landscaping is fairly dense, and Alcazaren wants to keep things wild. One of the common mistakes of most tourism developments is that the gardeners and landscapers resort to residential gardening. They will just keep on trimming and pruning when everything should be wild, he laments. BluPrint 107 45
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE The resort is supposed to have a waterfall feature near the restaurant so that diners can look out on a sheath of water falling down one floor, but it didn t push through. Even with pump systems in place, that s very difficult and expensive to achieve, especially if you cannot control the quality of the pool contractor, says Alcazaren. (Image courtesy of LIPAD Aerial Photography) Vistas and views Alcazaren believes that site planning has become the weakness and bane of most architects whose attention is often limited to the building footprint and how the project s space requirements fit inside. Designing landscapes gives emphasis to view corridors, vantage points and sightlines, and considers elevations and angles from which people can see and appreciate the place. He shares, When you design resorts, you must look at the context. Check visible sightlines from anywhere within the development and the buildings. That s what you are selling the views. Vistas are important so you must also consider the orientation of the rooms. Landscape architects deal with space, perception, and experience, he continues. Landscape architecture deals largely with the site, the spaces outside of the building, and the relationships of these spaces. Designers must have an understanding of perception to create an experience or emotion in space. For dense cities, architects and planners may have little control over the restrictive lot cuts they have to work with, but with tourism destinations like Be Grand Resort, there is simply no excuse not to take advantage of the views to make the guests stay more interesting, and their experience more rewarding. As Alcazaren remarked, In designing destinations, what we are trying to do is to create a paradise or at least, an illusion of it. DESIGN TEAM Developer Be Resorts Landscape Architect Paulo Alcazaren of PGAA Creative Design Architect Luijo Nakpil Furniture Designer Kenneth Cobonpue 46 BluPrint
The scuba pool is in the shape of a boat and so are the sunset deck and certain patches of landscaping. It wasn t deliberate, but apparently, the geometric theme of the boat just came up and became the recurring theme during the design stage. 18 17 19 13 7 4 8 20 16 12 6 21 15 14 22 10 9 11 4 4 1 2 5 3 SITE DEVELOPMENT PLAN Main gate Parking Desalination house Roundabout Walk in nursery/ Herbs and plants garden 6 Generator set 7 Staff house 8 Welcome pavilion 1 2 3 4 5 9 Hotel building 10 Roof deck 11 View deck/ restaurant 12 Wet dining area 13 Function hall 14 Main pool 15 Kiddie pool 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Bridge bar Family villa pool Boat restaurant Family villas Couple villas Beach bar Sandbox BluPrint BP_Vol1_2016_Architecture_BEHotel.indd 47 107 47 1/21/16 5:16 PM