Czech developer RSJ Private Equity has selected international architecture and interior design practice Jestico + Whiles to design a new sustainable hotel resort on the east African island of Zanzibar.

Jestico + Whiles has designed the Uzuri Hotel Resort, anticipated to open in early 2016, and it will be a village resort including 60 individual cabanas and five larger villas, in addition to restaurants, bars, yoga, meditation spaces and massage cabanas.

Shade and sea breeze will keep the hotel interiors ventilated naturally and rainwater will be harvested as part of the eco-push. Two wells will be built on site to pump salt water into a desalination plant, supplying clean water to the whole resort. Jestico + Whiles describes the resort as “off-grid” in relation to the island’s limited infrastructure and its incorporation of self-sustainability measures.

More information on the wellness aspects will be revealed as the project progresses, a spokesperson told Spa Opportunities.

The accommodation cabanas will be set in small clusters, steps away from the beach among a landscape of sand, palm trees and timber walkways. Design features include Omani doors and balconies, as well as traditional African touches such as coconut thatch roofs and coral stone structures are included. There are also plans for a spice garden, where indigenous and rare fragrant spices will be grown and used in the resort’s restaurants, as well as to create an exclusive range of cosmetics.

Jestico + Whiles is working on a number of hotel projects in other African countries, such as Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. It has recently completed the interior design for the Aqua Shard restaurant in The Shard, London, in addition to the 500-bedroom Yas Hotel which straddles the Formula One Grand Prix racetrack in Abu Dhabi.

Four Seasons to open Discovery Centre at Serengeti resort

HBA designs Zanzibar resort scheme