Eco-Resort Playa Viva Offers Tree Houses and True Sustainability
A pristine beach, lush native forest, abundant wildlife, and vibrant local community. A resort that gives its guests a transformational experience and sends them home with a new worldview. These are just some of the goals of David Leventhal and Sandra Kahn, the husband and wife founders of Playa Viva, an eco-resort like no other.
Their ambition is to restore the 200-acre parcel on the Pacific coast of Mexico so effectively that future generations will say “they got it; they did the right things” and other developers will follow their lead. The project objectives go beyond conservation to regeneration, where native vegetation is restored and damaged ecosystems are healed. Leventhal and Kahn believe in the triple bottom line, so community development projects—in the form of local jobs, a museum, and a school for organic architecture—are also part of the plan. Construction will start in early 2008 and the resort will open in early 2009.
Like many resorts in Mexico, Playa Viva will offer a beautiful white sand beach, luxurious hotel, and activities like horseback riding. But Playa Viva will be the first to give guests the chance to live in a self-sufficient, self-sustaining, permaculture-based community. Plans for this “ecotopia” include:
- Tree houses suspended above the beach, supported by palm trees
- Locally-grown and organic food in an edible landscape
- Buildings made of local, natural materials with roofs of palm leaves and cocoanut shell insulation
- Constructed wetlands, marshes, and prairies that purify wastewater from the resort facilities
The site includes almost a mile of beachfront, a turtle sanctuary, a mangrove forest, a sacred archeological site, and protected wetlands; a full 80 percent will be designated a wildlife preserve. For the past year, a dozen experts—permaculturists, biologist, soils hydrologist, architect, planner, project manager, and tree house builder—have been learning about the site, gathering seeds, starting the restoration process, and planning the site’s infrastructure. Having so many disciplines involved is unusual, but reflects both the complexity of the project and the founders’ holistic, systems approach to development.
As Leventhal talks about Playa Viva, he outlines the linkages between land, people, flora, and fauna. “Will the project fail if there’s no community development? No, the real estate project will not fail, but the environmental projects will fail. We’ll fail in the mission if people see trash in the town, or if the water table is infiltrated,” he continues. “We don’t want that to happen. How can we ensure that the water remains pristine? Teach organic agriculture. What if there’s no market for organic agriculture? Start a CSA [community-supported agriculture] program.”
With such big-picture thinking in play, it is no surprise that the resort’s actual buildings will be thoroughly examined for their social, environmental, and economic impact. The first decision focused on the kind of structures to be built. “We put a lot of thought into the social hierarchy, the structure and movement of people,” Leventhal says. “We want to move people from private spaces to public spaces to more public spaces.” That means visitors will sleep in private casitas (small houses), lounge and read in bigger common areas, and cook, dine, and socialize in the beach club. Later on, a town-like plaza will become the social and cultural center for the entire resort community.
After deciding what to build comes the problem of where to build. With so many ecologically sensitive areas on the property, the beachfront looked like the ideal spot for the casitas—except for the sandy soil. Concrete is commonly used when building on sand, but its poor eco-footprint did not match the project’s goals. Master designer Ayrie Cunliffe instead suggested a thoroughly sustainable option: tree houses. Palm trees serve as columns, floors are made of wood, the walls consist of soil, and the roof is woven from palm tree leaves. The palm trees’ roots—“designed by nature in a fantastic way,” says project architect Michel Lewis—help to stabilize the dunes and are strong enough to withstand the area’s hurricane-force winds and earthquakes.
Using natural materials and construction techniques is effective economically as well as environmentally, since the wood, soil, and hay can be gathered onsite. Lewis has been using such materials for 25 years. He prefers to use workers who live in the area to help improve the local economy and expose as many people as possible to his clean construction techniques.”When the local workers see our techniques with soil and adobe, wood and palms for roofs, they realize they can gather their own materials and build their own houses,” Lewis says. “We’ve done this before and the effect is amazing,” he adds.
For his designs, Lewis draws inspiration from 18th and 19th century architecture in the region where he is working. “Mexico is a big country, with mountains, desert, snow…architecture is very different depending on the geological site and location,” he says. “Our ancestors had to solve the same problems we face today, but with no technology. By the 18th century, they were masters at solving climate problems with natural ways,” he adds. This bioclimatic approach takes advantage of breeze and shadows to help keep beach houses cool and comfortable in the summer. In a different setting, thick walls and skylights can make a mountain hacienda warm in the winter with minimal heat.
The past influences Lewis’ designs, but he also takes advantage of modern technology. Lewis relies on AutoCAD® products from Autodesk to visualize his designs, draw them in 3D, and create models. He also uses Autodesk® 3ds Max® software for renderings and perspective. “They are fantastic tools to work with,” Lewis says. “We can look at a design from all points of view and see the relationship between all our structures. We have a model and can see every single detail. We can’t go wrong—we can change what we want really fast,” he adds. “Without Autodesk, we would be working for another century. And without AutoCAD, we would not be able to achieve the degree of sustainability we wanted in this project.”
Sustainability, regeneration, community, self-reliance—these are not always the mementos one brings back from a beach resort vacation. But when the developers’ goal is to build a place and provide an experience that makes visitors want to live their lives differently, they are the memories that matter. Leventhal, Kahn, and their crew of experts are designing Playa Viva to serve as a model for a truly sustainable community, one that succeeds on the environmental, economic, and social levels.
