#Industry News
Westin Maldives Miriandhoo Resort: a luxury, sustainable construction
Suspended between earth and sea, on the coral island of Miriandhoo, is the Westin Maldives Resort: a facility for tourists conceived and designed with a focus on sustainability throughout, in which Casalgrande Padana porcelain stoneware coverings hav
On Miriandhoo, a coral island in the Baa atoll, surrounded by the Indian Ocean, whose variety of marine life earned it the status of UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2011, is the Westin Maldives Miriandhoo Resort.
Designed by the Peia Associati architecture firm in Milan for Westin, a Marriott International Group operator, and inaugurated in October 2018, the luxury resort comprises 70 hospitality units composed of suites and private villas with swimming pools and ocean views, 41 of them on the island and 29 in the water, as well as 9 public buildings dedicated to providing services for guests and 16 buildings for staff.
The main aim of the project was to take great care to preserve a delicate environmental setting and to preserve the balance of nature by reducing consumption of the soil and its resources to a minimum.
Particular attention has been paid to the materials used, regarding both the choice of the timber used for the roofs of the bungalows, the pier and for the jetties of the units built on the piles sourced from controlled rapid reforestation areas, and the choices made for the interiors of the hospitality facilities, using natural materials obtained by mixing lime-based plasters with pieces of wood and dead coral.
Alongside the natural materials, Casalgrande Padana porcelain stoneware tiles from the Antique Wood, Architecture, Marmoker and Marte collections were chosen for the floors and coverings. Made exclusively from natural raw materials, free from glazes, plastic and harmful substances, they are an eco-sustainable, long-lasting, innovative material, particularly suitable for use in a low-environmental-impact project.
The use of porcelain stoneware tiles
The floors of the reception and spa areas have been covered with wood-effect Casalgrande Padana ceramic tiles from the Antique Wood collection, in the colour white and the 15x120 cm format, while the restaurant area has been tiled using Grigio Maggia marble-effect stoneware from the Marte collection, in the large 60x120 cm format, with a natural finish for the interiors and an anti-slip, bush-hammered finish for the outside areas.
For the floors of the bedrooms in the suites, and for the inside of the swimming pools, the white Thassos tiles from the Marte collection were used.
Particular attention was paid to the choice of the coverings in the open-plan bathrooms, in which ceramic tiles have been used on both the floors and walls, to create a sensation of visual continuity between the interior and the outdoor part of the bathroom-garden.
The inside of the shower has been tiled with the Statuario Grigio colour from the Marmoker collection, specifically created in a mirror version and installed using the open-vein technique.
