Borneo Rainforest Lodge

Articles Tagged with: Borneo Rainforest Lodge

16 April, 2008

Borneo Rainforest Lodge – Marketing Photos

Work has just started on site for the second phase chalet refurbishment. I’ll bring you an update on this in due course. Meanwhile here are some professional photos of the first phase chalets which were completed last year. Visitor feedback so far is excellent, especially on the private outdoor bathtubs. There is also anecdotal evidence that the room design has been able to achieve a comfortable reduction in ambient temperature without resorting to air-conditioning, although I regret that I did not have the foresight to test this unequivocally through the installation and monitoring of thermometers. There are always lessons to be learned.

All photos by Calvin Ng

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28 April, 2007

Eco Tourism

Above is a photo of work in progress at BRL. This ‘mock-up’ chalet is now complete and all remaining 8 rooms should be ready by the end of June. We deliberately programmed construction to complete one twin chalet ahead of the others. This approach has proved very useful and has allowed us time to tweak the design without big cost penalties.The photo shows the concrete base of a spa bath which has been installed in six of the ten chalets. As well as being the area of design which as been most ‘tweaked’, this bath also provokes debate about the nature of eco-tourism lodges.

Ecological tourism (eco-tourism) is a form of tourism which aims to be both ecologically and socially conscious. It is usually associated with travel to areas with a rich cultural heritage, outstanding natural beauty and high biodiversity. Due to the fragility of such environments there is a risk that tourism may damage exactly the characteristics that attract the tourists in the first place.

Therefore any would be eco-tourism resort should demonstrably minimize the adverse effects of traditional tourism on the natural environment and enhance the cultural integrity of local people. Currently the implementation of eco-tourism principles is mostly voluntary and there is little regulation within the industry or local governments. This has led to claims that some tourism operators use the term eco-tourism as a marketing tool without accountability for their claims.

As a result regulation is now starting to be driven by organisations such as Wild Asia who use both the internet and mainstream media to promote the concepts of Eco-tourism and/or Responsible Tourism. The result of this is that any would be eco-tourism resort must adhere to the principles of eco-tourism

As commendable as these principles are, they ignore a more fundamental debate about how luxurious should an eco-tourism lodge be. There is a strong argument which says that eco-tourism should promote more modest, less consumerist ways of living.

By this argument the above mentioned principles of eco-tourism are devalued to a ‘retrofit kit’, serving only to minimise the impact of our actions rather than questioning the existence of these actions in the first place.

A 33m² (110ft²) ensuite bedroom with veranda and private spa is not modest. Each spa bath requires the use and subsequent disposal of 800litres (210gallon) of water and has necessitated the installation of large solar water heaters with additional electrical backup heating.

If I apply the above question I can’t help thinking that the environment would be better served by not having the spa baths in the first place, rather than trying to mitigate their impact with the use of solar water heaters and biodegradable soap.

My client however would be quick to point out that all aspects of this refurbishment will make BRL more competitive in a rapidly expanding market. A successful Borneo Rainforest Lodge is currently one of the best incentives to conserve the Danum Valley and Ulu Segama rainforest.

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25 March, 2007

The Lost Valley of Imbak

I’ve recently been off on site visits with friends from the USA. In fact Mauricio is Mexican and Susan is German but they both practice in Los Angeles with a company called Urban Networks. As the name suggests they have a largely urban portfolio but are pretty hot designers and are well up on sustainability issues. I’m working together with them on proposals for a new Studies Centre in the Imbak Conservation Area. Until this trip we had only met by Skype conference but over the course of ten days on the road we developed a great mutual respect and I’m pleased to say became close friends. Thanks for this are due to another friend Cynthia of LEAP who has put the team together and whose drive and committment is taking the project forward.

Followers of this blog will be aware that I have been involved in the Imbak Canyon project since I was sent there by Raleigh in 2004 to facilitate some young volunteers to come up with concept proposals for a new studies centre. On that occasion my colleagues in Raleigh had short listed some potential sites but the areas in question were still heavily overgrown secondary rainforest. It was our job to try to visualise a studies centre on a site that you literally could not see for the trees. Since then a base camp has sprung up whose buildings and layout have elaborated on designs that I sketched out. On subsequent trips I have been able to survey the Studies Centre site in more detail and refine the original concept design.

Knowing this you may therefore by sympathetic to my feeling of threat when informed that a group based in the US had come bearing sponsorship money and were to take over the architectural design of the Centre. This fear very quickly gave way to the realisation that my involvement wasn’t under threat but that I would have to adapt to a changing role. With this in mind I contacted Cynthia at LEAP and found myself with a new and perhaps more exciting opportunity. Our first task as a team was to plan a study trip and site visit to conservation areas in Sabah.

As the date for the trip drew closer the itinerary became increasingly jam packed. We planned to visit not only Imbak Canyon but also Maliau Basin and Danum Valley conservation areas. Perhaps heeding my grumbling about hours of driving on bumpy 4WD logging roads, Cynthia introduced the idea of doing one leg by helicopter. This would be very instructional and would indeed help us to fulfil our professional obligations we all agreed. The trip budget was re-examined and I began to believe that after four months living under a tarpaulin at the edge of the conservation area I might finally get to see the legendary Canyon from the air.

The flight from Kota Kinabalu to Imbak takes about an hour and on the way we crossed the virgin rainforest of the Crocker Range National Park followed by miles and miles of secondary forest degraded to varying degrees. On this flight plan we were fortunate, or perhaps unfortunate not to instead cross miles and miles of palm oil plantation which generally succeeds secondary rainforest. As we were just starting to get bored the pilot announced in our headphones that the boundary of the Canyon was ahead. What I could see was a forested mountainside rising to the same altitude as our aircraft and stretching away to either side. The top of the ridge was hidden in cloud and we feared that we would not find a break which would allow us to cross. We were flying into the sun and the cloud seemed blinding white and impervious, the jungle almost black by contrast. A gap appeared and we altered course. ‘Oh lucky day!’ announced our pilot ‘welcome to the lost valley of Imbak’. I felt my breath choke in my throat.

We crossed the ridge top with 200ft to spare and dropped steeply to follow the valley floor. Imbak is not really a canyon but as they already have a ‘Valley’ and a ‘Basin’ it was necessary to come up with a different sound bite. I have been lucky enough to fly over Maliau Basin by helicopter but it has nothing like Imbak. The valley floor of Imbak is wide and level and is carpeted with enormous trees. It would be easy pickings for the logging contractors and as you might imagine they are all scratching at the door. Imbak’s existence is still tenuous for although it has been set aside for conservation, it could still legally be logged. All that it would take is a decision by a single politician who may or may not be best mates with some logging contractors. The existence of a studies centre and nature tourism operations would go a long way to beefing up it’s protection.

25 March, 2007

Borneo Rainforest Lodge

This is Borneo Rainforest Lodge, otherwise known as BRL to the cognoscenti. It’s marketed as ‘An exclusive facility for natural history tourism’. It is exclusive because it is relatively small, relatively expensive and difficult to get to.

Size is a key issue when talking about eco-tourism. The Danum Valley Conservation Area is virgin lowland rainforest, far too fragile to put up with hordes of tourists trampling through the undergrowth. Besides, the uncomfortable two and a half hour 4WD journey should be enough to dissuade the mass-market.

Once here though, you realise what you are paying for. The hotel is on a bend in the Danum River and the rainforest is in your face. There are orang utans feeding on the opposite river bank, a wild pig called Moustache raiding the kitchen and endangered species of birds knocking themselves out by flying into windows.

The guests that I have spoken to are all overwhelmed by the place, although most also have some useful feedback that is helping me with my brief. For example, there is roughly a 50:50 split between those who think that there should be air conditioning in the rooms and those who are happy without. The other main comments, luckily, mostly tally with what my client has asked me to have a look at. Guests all stay in individual chalets, the oldest of which are starting to get a little tired now. My work is therefore mainly a refurbishment job, but also includes improving the natural lighting and ventilation and installing ‘Balinese’ baths on the verandas of the best chalets.

An important consideration is to try to reduce solar gain in the chalets so that we can continue to resist the calls for air conditioning. Unfortunately timber heats up rapidly during the day and the interior can quickly become uncomfortable. The challenge would seem to be to try to keep the sun off the building but things are never that simple. In this high humidity environment timber rapidly deteriorates if it is not baked dry by the sun for a few hours every day. A combination of a well insulated over-sailing roof, masonry in the shaded parts and timber in the sunny parts would seem to be the ideal combination.

I am also looking at their main lodge and trying to improve its layout and create more space for guests, both around the edge of the building where they can watch the wildlife and in the high open central space where they can keep cool. My job of recommending improvements to the lodge is made a lot easier by the fact that there are some easy to spot fundamental cock-ups with the planning. For example; front of house and back of house are hopelessly confused. In this refurbishment I am also indebted to the months and months spent drawing hotels for Weintraub Associates.

The Chalets and the Main Lodge are the meat of my work here, but there are also some fun projects on the side including a tented camp in the jungle and a tree-top observation hide. My biggest fear is that the months here will pass all too quickly.

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