Fazenda Boa Vista
Fazenda Boa Vista is a residential and hospitality complex located in a 750-hectare property in Porto Feliz, 100km away from the city of São Paulo, in Brazil. In addition to the spa, it also includes private villas, a Fasano Hotel, kids club, equestrian center, sports center, petting zoo, two 18-hole golf courses, golf clubhouse, swimming pools, and 242-hectare woodlands dotted with numerous lakes.
Fasano Hotel
Placed on one of the highest spots of the property and overlooking one of the lakes and the sunset, the hotel building is defined by a large structure of pronounced horizontality, composed by two symmetric wings – they draw light curves, one slightly concave and the other slightly convex - flanking the core body (reception, entertaining, office and housekeeping facilities).
Core body: right on the central transverse axis of the building, the entrance pathway leading to the reception hall is set under a wooden pergola and through a lush garden. From the reception forward, lobby and veranda develop in succession, integrated and gradually allowing for wider perspectives until, ultimately, unveiling the lake and the extensive green landscape. On the underground level, the bar and restaurant extend outdoors onto a large deck projecting over the lake, which serves for contemplation as well as swimming.
Wings: to the left and right of the reception, all accommodations are to find – 26 standard rooms to one side, and 11 duplex suites + 1 duplex two-bedroom suite + 1 room equipped for guests with disabilities to the other. Each of the wings is made up of a sequence of thirteen cubic modules housing all 39 guestrooms, clearly marked in the façade by the frames enclosing slabs and brickwork. The long hallways leading to the rooms are bathed in soft natural light, filtered by a sequence of pre-cast concrete slats standing all along the Northeast façade.
The ambience all over is that of low-key eloquence and coziness. The choice of materials - wood, stone, stucco, natural fibers and leather - as well as the furnishings, all contribute to this understated mood, at once elegant, plain and unpretentious, reminding of those resorts that existed in the 1950s and 1960s in the Sao Paulo countryside.
Equestrian Center Clubhouse
The equestrian center clubhouse stands discreetly on a slight slope, overlooking the equestrian competition track. The stringent program of the building, meant as a supporting and reception area to riders and spectators, features a bar, kitchen, lounge, restrooms and locker rooms, and was accommodated under a single rectangular concrete slab laid on numerous slim stilts, whose perimeter defines an area of 645 m2.
Under a generous rectangular top – which, after a large amoeba-shaped cutout, became a marquee – and around the curves of the inner garden, with its dense vegetation and leafy indigenous trees, three closed cubic volumes were distributed: locker rooms and kitchen were housed each in a wood cladded volume, whereas the bar and lounge areas share an all-glazed one.
Yet, open lounging areas still prevail under the marquee, as also on a succession of terraced platforms that descend from the clubhouse to the competition track, welcoming game spectators to sit, relax and enjoy the performances.
Golf Clubhouse
The clubhouse devoted to golf players and enthusiasts is developed in a building of 1,600 m², solved in two very distinct blocks.
The ground level – housing a lounge, bar, restaurant and offices – is composed of a light block and several open decks. Featuring mixed structure of metal and wood and enclosed by glass panes or masonry walls, the building is laid out as a sequence of interconnected rectangular spaces, partly over the lower-level landscaped slab, partly on the terrain. A succession of wooden decked platforms – three of them built as extensions to the bar, restaurant and lounge, and the others distributed in the surrounding ground on different levels – create outdoor lounging areas, open to the contemplation of the golf course and the view.
The lower level is defined as the heavy block. Built in concrete, it nestles in the downwards slope of the terrain as to extend the platform where part of the ground level is supported. On its white monolithic façade there is only one opening, the players' direct access from the course to locker, massage and restrooms. On the same level, with independent access and apart from the area intended to players, the kitchen and technical supporting areas are located.
Spa
The Spa is a low-rise construction whose build-out follows the land contours and the boundaries of the adjacent woodland. Internally, it unfolds in a succession of spaces with different sizes, lighting intensities and textures – everything always white. White, by the way, is the underlying element in the project for all it inspires: peace, quiet, relaxation, purity. Colors are used very sparingly in the Spa: bright yellow is at the main entry metal door, deep blue is at the glass mosaic tiles in the swimming pools, and then there are various shades of green in the gardens and woods surrounding the building.
Walls defining each room extend lengthwise from end to end of the building, and jut out from the roof as vertical blades – each at a different height – giving a clue about the internal layout, but not at all of what really goes on in the inside, considering the building is completely blind to whoever approaches it, only opening onto small enclosed patios or the adjacent woodland.
On the ground level, Massage Rooms are placed to one side of the reception, whereas Gym and Hair Salon are set to the other. Wet treatment rooms are located one level below, which, despite semi-buried, still allows for plentiful natural light flooding in from skylights, or from glazed doors that open to the slope that rolls towards the woods.
An extension to add a few more Massage Rooms is expected in the coming years. Considered in the design of the Spa from the beginning, it will present no difficulties, by adding a few extra blades alongside the existing ones, and further towards the woods.
