OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - RESEARCH - AMAZON RAINFOREST HOTEL

Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel:

"Imagine a hotel built among Amazon treetops: catwalks 70 feet up leading from a great circular dining room of polished tropical woods, a bar like an eagle's nest, a honeymoon suite built 110 feet up a mahogany tree, and friendly monkeys, macaws, sloths, and parrots scampering, fluttering, and dangling all over the place." - Conde Nast Traveller Magazine "25 extraordinary places worth the extra mile."

"Located 35 miles northwest of Manaus, Brazil, Ariau Amazon Towers has become one of the world's dream destinations. Sitting at the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Anavilhanas Archipelago and with over 6 miles of tree top canopy walkways, Ariau affords visitors a unique opportunity to commune with the regions abundant flora and fauna while leaving the fragile eco-system completely undisturbed."

The Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel is situated in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, and can only be accessed via boat or helicopter. This is the place to go if you really want to experience the rainforest, but in a safe and organised manner, with all the latest technologies and facilities. 

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Comments:

This is a great way for people to engage with the rainforest, interacting with it in a way they wouldn't get the chance to otherwise. However I can't help but think of all the environmental implications this hotel will have. Such as waste disposal, getting food to the hotel, does the frequent boats travelling to the hotel disrupt the riverbed and animals living within it? And obviously, the chopping down of part of the rainforest to make space for the hotel and it's facilities in the first place. By having humans deep in the rainforest, does this also impact on the surrounding wildlife? Do they take a wilder birth with humans so close, as the hotel is sat on their original home, they may feel vulnerable so close to humans. Also litter, there's bound to be some stray litter in the surrounding rainforest left by visitors, no matter how careful they are. It's safe to say there are a lot of negative impacts of the hotel in the amazon rainforest, if not for the deforestation impact, then other environmental reasons.