BAOBAB
THE ECO-FRIENDLY SAFARI RESORT
In the intense business of climate change solutions, it can be difficult to drum up resources for marketing. At OwlVoices, we approach innovators all the time, and a clear pattern has emerged. Almost without fail, they either flatly refuse our free and responsible publicity, usually without offering a reason, or they welcome us like long-lost friends. Even those who don’t need to cultivate a customer base understand the importance of building a community and step up to tell their story.
Take a moment and celebrate one that sells itself and raises awareness. It’s an attention-grabber, from first glance to mission statement. Share the heck out of it.
Know that we know your work and solutions are just as spectacular in their own ways, even if you don’t have giraffes and treehouses with swimming pools on top.
It’s marketed (there’s that word) as the world’s first eco-tourism luxury safari resort, and BAOBAB Luxury Safari Resort has a few surprises.
Project designer MASK Architects, Sardinia, Italy, came to this with the goal of more than a vacation destination, although it does serve to refocus on an appreciation for the natural world. It is a model for sustainable communities in Africa. One of its secrets is its air-to-water technology, making it a solution to the continent’s greatest challenge, clean drinking water.
Even now, when tourists are enjoying a safe commune with animals roaming freely in their natural habitat, the resort is collecting enough water for its own needs and the community beyond. Infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, and economies are all expected to be enhanced in a ”wider restorative scheme.”
The idea is that these eco-lodges can be easily replicated using local materials or delivered to the remotest of areas, and become the solution to a particular community’s geological, climatic, and environmental issues. Upping the self-sustaining quotient, the modules can also be used as non-residential spaces like offices, restaurants, schools, and watchtowers, essentially, all the shelter a thriving community needs.
The lodge design is derived from the baobab tree, using local beechwood, and bearing a crown of branches. From a distance, there is little to suggest it is more than teepee-shaped slats of wood, but the tech part starts with transparent solar device-covered curtains to produce electricity. Humidity and optimized dehumidification techniques extract and condense moisture from the air.
The wooden slats cover a passive water collection system of aluminum poles with air intakes and internal air filters. Angled, filament mesh captures water droplets as they travel down the sloping poles and sends them to a tank in the central foundation, and then on to a network supplying the community.
This water will also be used on land set aside for growing produce and raising livestock, and in facilities to make and sell food staples, like bread, milk, cheese, and meat, sustaining the greater community.
The baobab inspiration is poetic. A prehistoric species, it predates the formation of the continents and has survived for more than 200 million years.
