Lake Ohrid Resort   Pogradec, Albania

The project is for a luxurious resort and medium-sized hotel with 100 residences and villas on the Albanian side of Lake Ohrid in a location considered to become a Unesco World Heritage site. The Resort focuses on an offer ranging from outdoor activities to holistic treatments for health and wellbeing to attract visitors throughout the year and aims to be the first choice for a relaxing luxury lifestyle holiday and sets new benchmarks and standards in the lifestyle tourism around Lake Ohrid.

The Resort takes advantage of the wide vistas across the lake. Inspired by the silhouettes and expanse of the surrounding mountains, the buildings are carefully positioned, creating their own distinct outlines made of sculptural rooftops and terraces. The setting and rich Albanian landscape around Lake Ohrid, one of rolling hills and valleys in contrast to the quiet water surface of the lake, has informed the concept of the resort.

Our approach derived by observing of the surrounding nature and research focussed on the vernacular techniques of house building in this landscape. A number of typological themes have emerged and remain consistent throughout the design process, which inform an exemplary approach to the design of contemporary interpretations of the traditional Albanian residential architecture.