The will was there, and I was ready: The idea to build the Aiyana was born. Now the reality…No water, no power, no phone, no access, this was simply crazy! Nobody would ever come to invest here, unless this one is crazy, and, yes, Makangale village had just found one… As always, the project kicked off after some of paper works in Zanzibar, with very helpful officials, may be because of my country being part of SADC, but also because Mauritius is a successful Touristic destination with a recognized know-how in hotel business ,so admin process was “cool” and I must say quick. This was also a superb opportunity to make new friends who still support me just for the sake of supporting the project.
The site stood unchanged for thousands of years with a landscape loaded with meanings and we decided to build 30 villas all facing the ocean. “Having visited Pemba for several times, I already had a clear idea of the “atmosphere” in my mind, and now the direction was to build with an architecture enhancing, not dominate and would exist in harmony with Nature. And, today, this is achieved… our villas are being eaten by greenery… The architecture of the Resort has of course its own personal and individual character due to the forms and facets of the local materials we could find, those materials having played a crucial role in what we could built and eventually, determined the Aiyana Concept. Locals’ people from the area use lime to create mortar for their construction, with limestone burned at high temperature leaving behind the burnt lime (quick lime).
One of the main ideas leading the project was also to create as much as job possible and we decided to use this fascinating technology which is actually more than 7,000 years old. Having said that, lime used in the Aiyana Resort supported a vast and vital network for the village small activities, from gathering of stone, carts, cows and even barges for transportations, while employing specialists to monitor the burning.
Michewni, a village 10 miles away, supplied us with tons of aggregates for the construction, with nearly 4,000 tons of cokokoto (aggregates) and chipping.
Of course forget about crushing machine in Michweni… all was done by hand with a hammer, and mostly by women. The initial visit at the stone quarry was something never to be forgotten… What a real hardship…! We decided to help and to buy every bits and pieces coming, while normally everyone buys only bigger pieces, the left over being abandoned and, so we decided to buy tons of the left over to be washed, used in our bathroom as terrazzo on the wall an on the floor, for a very rich and ecological material. I am proud that those pieces coming from the limestone, mainly coral and shells of long extinct sea creature are now in our bathrooms.
Pemba people are very good carpenters, every village has its own wood workshop for the people, so we decided to mainly furnish the hotel from the island, with of course the famous Zanzibar doors,… Since years, the same design is utilized and willing to differentiate slightly was quite a challenge, with lots of trial and error, but once again, I am proud that we succeeded to make them chic and simple.
The Hotel was not developed with international contractors, famous architect, engineers etc… no, we did all ourselves, with the village people. We brought five Mason from Mauritius to undertake the challenge, they would not speak Swahili and the villagers would not speak French (creole) nor English, but they got on very well, to the extent that after six years of construction, almost all the villagers spoke few words of Mauritian language, with even small children are also talking in Creole in Makangale: “Dresse partou” is the key word meaning “all is ready, ok”… On the day we finished the mock up villa, every one visited, so happy and you could see in their eyes the feeling of proud ownership , all feeling that they had done it, all many broke into tears… I think their names should be written somewhere in the hotel… One of the most beautiful parts of the hotel is the Spa called “Maji “(water). It is a hotel within the Resort, inspired by the local makuti houses in the villages. We decided to keep the roofs naturally cool and ventilated and used coconut brooms as materials. For that spectacular result, the entire village collected coconut brooms for several months (approx… one hundred thousand brooms in total…) and once again, this supported many families…
Pure and Chic, The Aiyana has been designed and built around a concept of “simple materiality and consummate craftsmanship”. The vernacular architecture, high ceilings, pastel white colors, fragrant gardens, natural forms and traditional African building materials come together perfectly and melt into the sublime natural décor of this little slice of heaven. During construction over eight years, we have been celebrating anniversaries and weddings of our team on the beach, sharing Mauritian Music with Swahili sounds… Music! What a beautiful language! What a beautiful memory and ambience…an ongoing ritual since then on the beach… Pemba being a coral island, the site being just hard coral stone with only 20 mm top soil, result of hundred years of nature hard work… To covers stones, digging a trench, or excavating a basement or a septic tank, simply doing a hole to plant a tree or a palm was an immense challenge. We managed nevertheless to plant thousand of different adult palms from 3 meters to 10 meters, with hundreds of tree, ultimately forming our garden like a Temple…. Most of the original evergreen forest of Pemba has been destroyed, and the largest now surviving forest is the Ngezi forest Reserve, located just 2 kilometers, and naturally, we decided that our guest should have the feel of Ngezi in our resort… We have brought plant species from Mauritius, Thailand (from the garden of the famous landscape architect Bill Bensley) Bali, France (exactly from the Champs Élysées round about), Zanzibar and from many different villages of Tanzania… We almost modified the micro-climate of our site with our vegetation and now having many species of birds nesting within our garden. This is crucial for the future as Pemba has 183 species of birds, some very rare, vulnerable, some endangered, some near threatened and few endemic. In this context, Pemba is a destination of for bird watchers with an island in the south of main island Pemba call “kalwa”, home for thousands and thousands of different types …
… of birds and as well as a touchdown point for all of those who are migrating across the world. We also strongly believe that the spirit of art and culture developed and integrated in The Aiyana will help developing younger generation and will bring them fortune… The resort is open and welcomes visitors from all over the world, coming to discover Pemba… To make and preserve this exceptional place we started to raise awareness on the importance of the Ocean, the beauty of Pemba Chanel, as we consider ourselves in front of a natural Marine park, which shelter untouched and healthy coral reefs, multitude of tropical fish and amazing underwater plants. We want to extend and protect the area and by doing so we are committed to protecting their livelihood, hoping that the future generations will respect the incredible role the underwater plants and corals plays in our ecology. Tourist brings in money and creates jobs, but they can also mean disturbance and challenges if not correctly managed. We have learned big lessons from many other areas in the world and we have a strong vision for Pemba, leading us leading developing The Aiyana in an always sustainable manner! Being a family-friendly luxury Resort, we do a lot to minimize its social and environmental impact, we try to maximize community benefits, and building a loyal and skilled workforce, mostly locally recruited… they are ultimately our biggest assets… We source fresh, quality local products for our restaurant, and we offer sensitive planned excursions which are always a tribute to local culture and people. We have dedicated a small gallery for local artifact and for local artists, as we do not want to be a resort that captures most of its guest… We want our guests to be part of the local economy….
Finally, we simply believe that the mere act of traveling can make a difference, however, if one can travel and ensure local people benefit from his stay, then he will come back home enriched… Our Story is beautiful, our people are marvelous and we wish to welcome visitors that will embrace our vision, support the Aiyana culture and the Aiyana community footprints
Ashok Sungkur Owner of The Aiyana.
Inspiration from the Island
