Nikaya - Retreat
In a 7-acre fruit and flower orchard, this yoga and wellness retreat is shaped by the spirit and form of yoga. It is a place of calm, immersed in a landscape of rolling hills, plantations, and distant views. The buildings emerge from the ground, closely embraced by the terrain. Each structure is designed for both its function and its evocative character - including a yoga hall, reception and library, meditation hall, and dining-dormitory.
Set around the idea of yoga, the retreat is shaped by the activity and spirit of yoga. Stone, wood and steel make the place rooted in the landscape. The place disappears into the landscape shaped for it, hiding and revealing its spaces and artifacts in a gentle play of stone, earth and vegetation. Between the buildings, seasonal water and plants flow and grow in swales that wind along the site channelizing and percolating water into the ground and ending into recharge well.
Each building sits comfortably in the landscape, with lines of structure and form composed in gentle inspiration from yogic postures
The buildings are sited within 1.5 acres of the 7acre farm to reduce footprint. The buildings are arranged around a square court along cardinals. Each building is designed with lines of structure and form composed in gentle inspiration from yogic postures of the human body - balanced but poised with a gesture of movement. In addition, the buildings respond to the moderate tropical climate of the region, situated on the natural terrain to receive daylight from the north and south as well as the prevailing wind along the NE and SW directions.
The buildings are made with composite walls of local stone and cement block , making it stronger to retain earth berms, and making them better insulated for the summer heat. The roof structure is a composite of steel and recycled wood rafters. Much of the wood is recycled/reused from industrial packaging available locally. The grey granite cladding stone is also sourced from a quarry within 50 km from the site. Finishes are kept basic - polished cement flooring, wood hand polished, rough hand-dressed stone cladding on walls.
