Villa Colibri – Belize
Villa Colibri – Placencia, Brazil
The owners of Villa Colibri fell in love with the property after making many visits to the renowned Turtle Inn, a Francis Ford Coppola boutique resort located adjacent to the Villa Colibri property. Situated in one of the most pristine beach locations in Central America, this 7 acre property runs between the Caribbean Sea and an expansive lagoon located near the tip of the Placencia peninsula.
Hyperion was brought in as project supervisors for the owners and ensured construction and development followed the direction and vision of the famed Made Wijaya as designer and architect for the new buildings and landscaping. Hyperion also fabricated many of the doors, windows and the flooring for the villas.
Being in a hurricane prone area, the challenge of constructing the new buildings to follow the tropical design of the architect and also meet standards that would prevent the roofs from blowing away in 220 kilometer an hour winds took much coordination between the designer, contractors, the owners and a lot of ingenuity.
The land is low-lying and prone to flooding when large storms or hurricanes are in the area. The architect designed a plateau that raised the property above the flood zone level. Retaining walls with deep footers that flowed with the contour of the property were thoughtfully designed, poured in place and then later landscaped to hide and blend them into the natural environment.
The main existing home on the property was solidly built, but without much character, and no pool. Made Wijaya presented a beautiful re-design of this home and we started by building the pool. The owners are very much into the native Mayan culture of these lands, so Made designed a glass mosaic tiled Mayan motif to inlay the entire pool. The work was done by a renowned artisan in Dubai and sent to Belize where it was installed under close Hyperion supervision. The results are stunning. The concrete pillars and beams of the house were clad with a natural limestone sourced locally, and concrete railings were changed out to natural wood railing systems to add a tropical ambiance.
The fabrication, packing, containerizing, shipping and customs related documentation and logistics between Indonesia, the Middle East, and Belize are always a big challenge and require numerous connections in many places to achieve in a timely manor. And moving the materials from shipping ports and airports to smaller planes and trucks are also challenging, as often, the landing strips are quite small, and roads washed out during the heavy rains, requiring temporary bridges to be built. Without the ever changing logistical knowledge, projects can be delayed for weeks, or months, or more.
