This Mountaintop Luxury Hotel Would Be Totally Powered by Water

A new hotel aims to combine luxury and sustainability. Called the Vertical Micro-climate Resort, the cutting-edge hotel is designed to run solely on hydro-power and maximize natural sunlight, reports Business Insider.

Hotels built in remote locations are usually costly for the environment and deplete water, land and local resources, according to the Global Development Research Center. But this design from Vancouver-based Arno Matis Architecture is a finalist for this year’s Radical Innovation Award, a competition for imaginative hotel designs. It was chosen as one of the three finalists out of 65 submissions from 24 countries.

Rendering above showcases photo- chromatic guardrail and deck edge reflecting to brighten grounds and suites with natural light (Arno Matis Architecture)

The 840,000-square-foot hotel would be located on a mountaintop in Victoria, British Columbia and would feature four high-rise towers ranging from 15 to 18 stories. That would be a total of 500 rooms. The concave shape of the towers would help minimize energy use by optimizing the amount of natural sunlight on the resort grounds.

“Marketed towards Canadians seeking warmer climates, the Vertical Micro-climate Resort uses natural thermal and solar technology to warm and brighten resort grounds, providing a brighter, warmer, year-round indoor and outdoor resort living experience within temperate northern climates,” the firm’s principal architect, Arno Matis, told Business Insider.

The luxury hotel will also have greenhouse cabanas and an open-air island lobby. Guests could even hail a drone to get food and drinks delivered to them.

Unfortunately, there are no plans to build the Vertical Micro-climate Resort right now, but Matis did say that construction would be possible with currently technology.

Indoor/Outdoor Suite Concept: Natural light apertures within the deck slab refract additional light into the suites (Arno Matis Architecture)

Resort grounds use organic pcm-infused concrete to maintain a comfortable outdoor resort setting year-round (Arno Matis Architecture)

Natural geothermal heat warms cliff edge pools, while greenhouse-like pool cabanas make the retreat space functional and enjoyable in winter/shoulder climate (Arno Matis Architecture)

Concaved shaped towers used reflective guardrail systems to redirect additional light down and naturally brighten resort grounds (Arno Matis Architecture)