The Open Spiral of Regenerative Hospitality Design

Sustainability has become one of the defining conversations in hospitality design. It’s written into briefs, measured through certifications and often judged by the materials we specify or the technologies we adopt. Those things matter, but I’ve increasingly found that they aren’t where the conversation begins.

For many years, our industry measured success by the amount of harm we could avoid. Regenerative design asks a different question: not only how we reduce our impact, but how a project can create lasting value for the landscapes, communities and ecosystems that support it. The most meaningful projects I’ve worked on haven’t started with a building. They’ve started with a place.

Long before we sketch a plan or choose a material, we spend time understanding the place itself. One of the most valuable parts of our process happens before design begins, when we immerse ourselves in the communities around a site. We walk through nearby towns, visit local markets and pay close attention to the ordinary details of daily life because they often reveal extraordinary lessons about how people have adapted to their environment. From traditional construction methods to locally sourced materials and responses to climate, these observations help us understand what has sustained both communities and landscapes over generations. Rather than arriving with preconceived solutions, we begin by learning from the systems that already exist, allowing the place itself to inform the most sustainable design response.

Instead of asking how little impact we can leave behind, we should ask what value a project can create over its lifetime. Can it strengthen local economies? Does it preserve knowledge that might otherwise disappear? How does it support biodiversity and leave a place healthier than it was before construction began?

In hospitality, these questions matter even more because we don’t simply design buildings. We shape the way people experience a destination.

I’ve come to believe that the most important tool we have as designers isn’t a material, a certification or even a piece of technology. It’s humility. The willingness to step back before stepping in. To listen before designing. To recognize that the land often has more to teach us than we could ever impose upon it.

Whether we’re working in the forests of Uganda, the plains of Kenya or the coastline of Costa Rica, the process always begins in the same way: understanding what already exists before deciding on the appropriate design response.

Regenerative Design in Practice

The real test of regenerative design is not in theory, but in the decisions that follow. Every landscape demands a different response, and our role is to uncover what that response should be.

That way of working shaped our approach to Kitirua Plains Lodge, on the edge of Kenya’s Amboseli National Park. Rather than treating Maasai culture as a source of visual inspiration, we looked to its deeper principles of coexistence with the land. For generations, the Maasai have understood how to move through this environment with care, adapting to its rhythms rather than trying to control them. That perspective influenced almost every decision that followed.

The architecture responds to the vast topography of Amboseli, framing Mount Kilimanjaro at every turn. Curved walls and gently flowing rooflines echo the surrounding terrain, while responsibly sourced soil from the site mixed within the plaster allows the buildings to sit naturally within the colors of the landscape.

The same thinking informed the interior design. Furniture crafted in Kenya, handwoven natural fibers and partnership with local artisans was favored because they carried the knowledge, character and identity of the place itself. When guests leave with a stronger understanding of where they’ve been and the people who shaped that experience, hospitality becomes much more meaningful.

As a greenfield development, every system had to be established from the ground up, creating an opportunity to think beyond the immediate needs of the lodge and consider its long-term relationship with the landscape.

The lodge operates in step with the natural systems of Amboseli rather than in opposition to them. Passive design strategies significantly reduce the need for mechanical cooling, with air conditioning limited to only where it is essential, while photovoltaic panels provide the lodge’s energy needs without relying on fossil fuels. Water is sourced from an on-site borehole connected to the Kilimanjaro water system, with greywater recycled for irrigation to reduce pressure on local resources, and integrated composting and recycling systems ensure waste is managed responsibly as part of the lodge’s daily operation. Considered together from the outset, these systems minimize the lodge’s ongoing demands on the landscape while preserving the ecological qualities that make Amboseli such an extraordinary destination.

That same long-term thinking extends beyond the boundaries of the site. In partnership with A&K Philanthropy, we contributed to the design of a new school in Amboseli, recognizing that hospitality developments should create value for the communities that make these destinations possible. For us, regenerative design isn’t measured only by what we build, but by the systems, partnerships and opportunities that continue creating long lasting positive impact.

Designing for What Comes Next

At Madwaleni River Lodge in South Africa’s Babanango Game Reserve, regeneration meant responding to one of the site’s most pressing ecological challenges. The reserve is actively removing invasive Australian black wattle, a fast-growing species that consumes significant amounts of water, displaces indigenous vegetation and degrades the surrounding grassland ecosystem. Restoring these natural landscapes is essential to improving biodiversity and protecting the reserve’s water resources but maintaining that progress requires continued stewardship.

Rather than treating the cleared wattle as waste, we transformed it into the lodge’s central boma, where local artisans weave harvested branches onto a steel framework using traditional Zulu craftsmanship. The significance of the structure lies not only in its construction, but in what happens afterwards. As the woven walls weather naturally over time, they are rewoven using newly harvested wattle, creating recurring employment for local artisans while providing an incentive to remove invasive trees from the reserve.

Every cycle of maintenance supports the continued rehabilitation and reinforces the connection between conservation, community and the guest experience.

Sense Over Size

Today’s guests are looking for something different. In our experience, they value immersion, authenticity and a genuine connection to place more than excess.

Understanding how they experience remote environments has encouraged us to rethink what luxury space really means. Rather than expanding buildings for the sake of scale, we create carefully considered suites that allow the site to take the lead, giving guests uninterrupted views, closer encounters with wildlife and a stronger connection to their surroundings.

In environmentally sensitive locations, that philosophy extends to how we build. Lightweight construction and modular prefabrication reduce disturbance during construction, allowing the architecture to settle gently into its surroundings.

The Treetop Tents at Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve on Costa Rica’s Peninsula Papagayo, embody this approach. Breathable canvas, roll-up mesh openings and elevated structures invite natural ventilation, forest sounds and unexpected wildlife encounters into the experience while protecting the forest floor below. Prefabricated in South Africa, the lightweight structures reduced on-site waste, demonstrating that engineering innovation and environmental sensitivity can work hand in hand. The result isn’t simply a lighter footprint, but a richer experience that is more aligned to the hospitality narrative.

Luxury Through Connection

Designing this kind of connection often requires us to rethink what comfort really means. For decades, hospitality architecture has relied on enclosed, mechanically conditioned spaces to provide a consistent indoor climate.

Where the climate allows, we choose a different approach. By combining passive cooling, natural cross-ventilation and architecture that breathes with its environment, we can reduce our reliance on energy-intensive mechanical systems while creating a more immediate relationship with the outdoors. Guests may give up a degree of perfectly controlled thermal comfort, but in return they gain something far more memorable: the sounds of the forest at first light, the scent of the land after rain and the gentle movement of air through a space.

Gorilla Forest Lodge reflects this philosophy through vernacular building traditions. Banana leaves provide a renewable thatching material with excellent insulating properties, locally made clay bricks offer thermal mass that helps regulate indoor temperatures, and papyrus reeds introduce lightweight, natural textures.

Combined with high ceilings, generous overhangs and natural cross-ventilation, these materials allow the buildings to respond to the tropical environment while reducing reliance on mechanical climate control. Open layouts frame uninterrupted views of the forest, immersing guests in its rhythms and offering the rare privilege of occasionally watching wild gorilla families pass through the property. It’s a reminder that the greatest luxury isn’t controlling nature; it’s experiencing it.

The Next Evolution of Luxury Hospitality

Regenerative design is about more than reducing our impact. It asks a different question: what systems can we put in place that continue restoring ecosystems, creating opportunities for local communities and generating value long after construction is complete? Over time, we’ve come to describe this way of thinking as the Open Spiral; a regenerative approach that recognizes a project is never truly finished. Its greatest success lies in its ability to keep strengthening the relationship between landscape, community and guest over time.

Perhaps that’s the next evolution of luxury hospitality. For too long, luxury has been measured by the extent to which it shields us from the outside world. The future lies in something different: creating experiences that connect us more deeply to the environment and communities that make a destination unique.

Regenerative design provides the framework, but connection is the outcome. The greatest luxury isn’t separation from nature; it’s feeling part of it. Those are the places that stay with us long after we’ve returned home.

Reprinted from the Hotel Business Review with permission from www.HotelExecutive.com.