Navarino Dunes Luxury Resorts, Costa Navarino
Navarino Dunes is the first site to open at Costa Navarino. It incorporates an 18-hole golf course, two hotels with a total capacity of 767 rooms and suites, a conference centre for up to 2,000 guests, a spa and sports facilities. Also, individual residences for sale will be developed at a later stage. It is located in the area of Messinia in the southwest Peloponnese, near the town of Pylos and the bay of Navarino. The destination is being developed with the philosophy of promoting the area, while at the same time protecting and preserving its natural beauty and heritage. The development presently encompasses 110.000m2 of built surface on a 1.300ha site.
The site took a number of years to materialize during which a number of designers were involved together with an active participation in aesthetic matters on the part of the Client.
One could summarize the main design issues to be as follows:
to respect the beautiful and sensitive natural environment minimizing the impact of the total development with buildings covering only a small percentage of the total development and by the use of materials which blend naturally into the site,
to predominantly develop the open landscaping of the project in a manner in order to make outdoor living an important part of the project,
to maximize the sea view, a task which was not easy due to the fact that the mean slope of the site is only 3-5%,
to develop the design with emphasis on sustainability and an overall bioclimatic approach to design, providing adequate planting and shading of exterior spaces and all apertures, cross ventilation, ceiling fans etc. The extensive use of water features and swimming pools will also contribute to this effect.