Technogym
Technogym
Technogym

Tourism

13th century pilgrimage

Architect Bill Bensley is creating an entire village on a remote mountain in Vietnam, using 13th century methods and materials. Jane Kitchen finds out more


Yên Tu Mountain is considered to be the cradle of Trúc Lâm Zen Buddhism in Vietnam – around two million pilgrims from the region visit Yên Tu each year to pay homage to Buddha-enlightened King Tran Nhân Tông, who established the Trúc Lâm Yên Tu Zen sect there in the 13th century. Now, the Vietnamese government has a strategic development plan for the area, and architect Bill Bensley is working on a national cultural heritage site to include a hotel, shops, museum, wellness centre, restaurants and market with shops and stalls selling local arts and crafts and organic produce from Yên Tu Mountain.

The area is set to become a major tourism hotspot for Vietnam – a new-yet-ancient historic and cultural destination, which to date has remained more or less unknown to international travellers. Tùng Lâm Company is developing what it says will be a world-class, sympathetic tourism destination to sustainably support and preserve the sacred place, opening it to international tourism while also ensuring it remains accessible for future generations to enjoy.

13th-century methods
Bensley has designed the entire Hành Huong Yên Tu Village using 13th-century style, techniques and material, and focusing on those historical details in order to help connect guests with the area’s rich history and culture. He says it was refreshing to work with 13th century methods. “I am day in and day out presented with the latest modern-day materials, new fabrics, the hottest wallpapers, the most exotic stones,” he explains. “Here, the DNA we chose was simple: What did they use in the 13th century? Our palette was pared down to basics, but I also limited our sourcing to the neighbourhood, employing whole ceramic ateliers to revive methods and products that only their great-grandfathers used.”

A range of seasonal festivals and activities will be on offer at the village; these will include cooking and aromatherapy classes, yoga and meditation, health treatments and foot massage, traditional art and folk music performances.

‘Wellness sanctuary’
The five-star hotel – a 133-bedroom Legacy Yên Tu, MGallery by Sofitel – is described as a “wellness sanctuary” and has been designed with local materials including bronze, wood and marble. Built using ancient methods to emulate a peaceful way of life, the rooms feature a signature wooden-inked slab traditionally used for calligraphy, as well as outdoor patio living areas, many with views of the mountain.

The hotel will also include a 2,240sq m (24,111sq ft) wellness centre, due to open later this year, which will specialise in Zen meditation, herbal baths and remedies, and wellness counselling.

“The opening of Legacy Yen Tu, MGallery combines the quintessence of wellness tourism and luxury travel to provide a getaway for travellers in search for a complete rejuvenation of their body, mind and spirit,” says Patrick Basset, CEO for AccorHotels Upper Southeast & Northeast Asia and the Maldives.

The wellness centre has also been designed by Bensley, who worked with consultants Dorian Landers and Florence Jaffre. It will include a swimming pool, oversized steam rooms and saunas built inside four large brick kilns, and will have large windows to take in the natural setting around it. The Tue Tinh Am Wellness area also offers an open space for meditation, yoga and Truc Lam Zen practices, and the large outdoor square pool is designed after the ancient 5th century monk bathing pools found in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, which was a also great centre for Buddhism.

Evolved onsen
Landers worked on the spa concept with Bensley, creating a wellness centre that respects the key principles of Tung Lam Zen Buddhism, while also using hot springs and local herbs.

“As Yên Tu does not have hot natural springs, our idea was to evolve the Japanese Onsen concept to heating filtered water and simmering roots, herbs and flowers to make various types of hot baths,” says Landers. “Those types of baths were used in ancient times for therapies and relaxation. We added herbal steam rooms and herbal scrubs to widen the spectrum. The wellness concept is to use mostly local herbs, roots, leaves and flowers to create baths and treatments that will have a calming and relaxing effect and promote meditation and reflection on spirituality.”

For the herbal wellness centre, the design took inspiration from an old brick factory in the hills of Yên Tu; Bensley has recreated the kilns, and the spa makes use of the ‘old’ furnace to heat up the water needed for the hot tubs, hot pools and steam. Treatments in the herbal spa include a herbal steam bath in the large kiln brick steam rooms, where local herbs, roots and floral essences are added to the steam. Mineral pools use stones and gems from Yên Tu Mountain known for their mineral and magnetic properties; the water flows on the stones before entering the common bathing pool, with the idea that ions from the stones are leached into the water in the process.

The wellness centre also offers common herbal tubs for between two and four people, as well as personal wooden herbal tubs for individual baths. Most herbs are harvested or grown within a 50 km radius of Yên Tu, and the entrance of the Yên Tu village complex also boasts its own large nursery.

Rustic offerings
Yên Tu Village Lodge is the village’s affordable accommodation, offering four-bed dorms spread over nine buildings throughout the village. The Minh Tâm Festival Field is available for outdoor events, with a capacity of up to 10,000 people, and the Diên Hong Ballroom seats up to 800 guests.

Bensley originally trained as a landscape architect, and the influence of the dominant indigenous flora of the area – daisy, apricot, bamboo and pine – is visible throughout.

This is Bensley’s first Buddhist hotel – but not his last. He’s currently working on the Oberoi in Kathmandu, where he is building early Buddhist-inspired residential architecture in the middle of the city, including seven courtyards telling the story of Buddha.

Bensley says he hopes what he’s done to transform the Yên Tu Valley will bring a sense of the history and importance of the location to pilgrims and a new wave of international tourists. “The reorganisation, the elimination of cars, and the building of our 13th-century-like village shines a clearer light on why pilgrims journey to this holy place, and anchors the project into the reality of King Tran Nhân Tông,” he says. “It was the best possible way to reconnect him and his spiritual legacy to the present.”

Gallery
Click on an image to open the image gallery
company profile
Company profile: Painting With Light
Painting with Light is a team of professional lighting and multimedia experts who design and produce visual experiences that dazzle & shine.
Try cladmag for free!
Sign up with CLAD to receive our regular ezine, instant news alerts, free digital subscriptions to CLADweek, CLADmag and CLADbook and to request a free sample of the next issue of CLADmag.
sign up
AEW Architects designed the hotel, which features contemporary design and bold colours
Giggs, Scholes, Butt, and Gary and Phil Neville are behind the project
"When we dreamt of building the first Hotel Football, we knew exactly what we wanted it to be"

The next phase for the Manchester sport-themed hotel

The design of the new HQ for the International Olympic Committee was inspired by the movement of athletes
Kim Herforth Nielsen founded 3XN in 1986 with Lars Frank Nielsen and Hans Peter Svendler Nielsen
"I always wanted to do more than just designing buildings"

How Danish firm 3XN is harnessing the power of architecture to shape human behaviour

Catalogue Gallery
Click on a catalogue to view it online
To advertise in our catalogue gallery: call +44(0)1462 431385
features
The DCS-designed Shoe Heaven for Harrods
Dublin-born David Collins moved to London in the 1980s and founded David Collins Studio in 1985
"The Studio is such a big part of our lives, that it just continued, albeit through a very challenging period"

David Collins was behind the design of many of London’s hottest destinations Today his legacy lives on via the studio’s glamorous international projects

Venice Biennale president Paolo Baratta said design and civil society must be more closely connected
"Freespace describes a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the core of architecture’s agenda"

On the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale theme

Tue Hesselberg Foged
"We were constantly having to invent new solutions to problems, as we were working with old ruins, a low budget and high ambitions"

Across Denmark, a charity is turning industrial buildings into centres for street sport and art. As the concept prepares to go global, we speak to the people making it happen

features
Ole Barslund Nielsen founded Monstrum in 2003 with Christian Jensen. The two met when working in theatre scenography
"Failing and falling can be a good thing"

How his background in theatre set design inspired Ole Barslund Nielsen to create playgrounds with a difference

The Peter Zumthor-designed Therme Vals spa resort opened in 1996
Thom Mayne
"Both good design & really bad design can be interesting"

On why he’s building a skyscraper next to Switzerland’s most famous thermal baths

The Bacots moved to Serenbe in 2014, attracted by the sense of community
"We love being surrounded by people who teach us and make us better. Serenbe has also really enhanced our thinking about the value of nature and being outside on a daily basis"

Eliza Bacot and her husband Benton talk about living at Serenbe with their family

cladkit product news
Alberto Apostoli designs tech-forward Wellness Therapy furniture collection for Varaschin
The furniture collection draws on absolute geometries, pure lines, neutral colours and strong references to nature
Megan Whitby
Furniture manufacturer Varaschin has unveiled the new Wellness Therapy range, designed by Italian spa and wellness architect and designer Alberto ...
Siminetti unveils iridescent decorative panelling range inspired by plants
The Clematis design
Megan Whitby
The Botanicals is Siminetti’s newest Mother of Pearl decorative panelling collection, inspired by the distinctive patterns found in botany and ...
Mather & Co and ITV unite to create Coronation Street Experience
Mather & Co has transformed the visitor centre into the ultimate haven for ardent Coronation Street viewers
Magali Robathan
Experience designers, Mather & Co, have orchestrated a remarkable collaboration with ITV to unveil the new Coronation Street Experience, a ...
cladkit product news
Jaffe Holden helps bring Academy Museum of Motion Pictures alive
Jaffe Holden provided architectural acoustics for the Academy Museum
Magali Robathan
Acoustical consulting firm Jaffe Holden provided architectural acoustics and audio/video design services for the recently opened Academy Museum of Motion ...
Alberto Apostoli and Newform collaborate to launch the A.Zeta showerhead
The showerhead offers two modes; rainfall or waterfall
Megan Whitby
Italian architect Alberto Apostoli has renewed his partnership with Newform – an Italian wellness company – and designed A.Zeta. A.Zeta ...
Koto Design introduces wood-fired hot tub
Koto is known for crafting modular, energy-neutral cabins and homes
Katie Barnes
A striking wood-fired hot tub has been unveiled by Koto, an architecture and design studio which has a passion for ...
cladkit product news
Eden project uses drones to spell out climate change warning
Magali Robathan
Almost 300 drones were used to signal an environmental message above the Eden Project’s biomes, during the UN Climate Change ...
Codelocks develops new glass door smart lock
The new lock model allows facilities and building managers to create and manage access via an app or online portal
Megan Whitby
Codelocks has launched its first glass door smart lock to bring intelligent access control to modern spa, leisure, fitness and ...
Eco Resort Network conference to convene in Mauritius this May
The event will be hosted in the Mauritius in 2024
Megan Whitby
Hospitality industry event Eco Resort Network is set to take place at the Ravenala Attitude Hotel, Turtle Bay, Mauritius, from ...
Technogym
Technogym