Located in Newfoundland, Canada, the Fogo Island Inn is a 29 room Hotel and Gallery built on stilts at the picturesque location of the shores at Fogo islands. The hotel is a part of the ongoing arts residency programme set up at the Newfoundland Isle.
The Hotel is designed by well known Canadian architect Todd Saunders and architects from his Norway based architectural firm Saunders Architecture. The hotel’s construction was completed in 2013 and covers an area of 4,500 sq meters. Its construction was commission by Zita Cobb, Anthony Cobb and Alan Cobb of Shorefast Foundation.
The building is situated between Joe Batt’s Arm and Barr’d islands on the black western shores. The building consists of 4 floors and a basement. The structure of the building is designed in an X shape. The 2 storeys of the west-east wing contain the public spaces and 4 storeys of the south-west to north-east wing which is parallel to the coast, contains the guest room and the remaining public spaces.
The first floor public areas are occupied by an art gallery which was curated by Fogo Island arts and also includes a bar, a lounge, a dining room and a library which houses the material donated by Dr. Leslie Harris, the president of Memorial University of Newfoundland. The second floor comprises of a cinema, a gym and various meeting rooms. The roof deck on the 4th floor has sauna cabins and outdoor hot tubs. The deck also offers some mesmerizing views of the north Atlantic.
The guest rooms which lie parallel to the coast have the beds placed so the guests can get a direct view of the little Fogo Islands. The rooms are sized variably between 350 sq feet to 1000 sq feet. The 21 rooms on the 3rd and the 4th floors also have wood burning stoves which provide a warm and cosy environment to the guests. The Hotel features wood fired boilers and solar panels for providing the building with the necessary heating needs.
The designers incorporated energy saving technologies from the very start to conserve water and electricity usage. Special care was taken while installing the supporting columns to the protruding ends of the building so that the surrounding rocks and plants had a minimal impact on them. This again makes the design a part of ‘Green Architecture’.
The highly insulated steel frames of the building and the windows have a triple pane glazing. And the water provided in the toilets is harvested rainwater from the roof. The building not only incorporates modern design and technology but has a lot of contemporary thrown in the mix. The textile and the carpentry work were done by local workers and craftsmen who in turn provided the hotel with an aesthetic value and made the place tied to the island.
The Design team consisted of Todd Saunders, Ryan Jørgensen, Joseph Kellner, Attila Béres and Nick Herder with locals Sheppard Case Architects. Structural Engineering was handled by DBA Consulting Engineers Ltd. Mechanical & Electrical Engineering by Crosbie Engineering Ltd., Sustainable Edge Ltd., Odyssey Mechanical Inc., Bayview Electrical Ltd., and Jenkins Power Sheet Metal. Construction Supervision was done by Shorefast Foundation; Anthony Cobb, Russ Petten, Dave Torraville, Keith Budgell. Interior Consultants were Rintala Eggertsson Architects (sauna area), Studioilse, 2H Interior Design, Tongtong, Designholmen. Furniture, Textiles And Wallpaper by Ineke Hans, Studiomama, Glass Hill, Donna Wilson, Simon Jones, SCP, Élaine Fortin, Tjep, Kym Greeley, Erika Stephens- Moore, Martine Myrup, Nick Herder, Yvonne Mullock, Chris Kabel, Winds and Waves Craft Guild, Mike Paterson, Shorefast Foundation Workshop and Eric Ratkowski. Lighting Consultancy was done by Dark Tools. Landscape Design was done by Shorefast Foundation with consultation from Cornelia Oberlander, James Floyd Associates, Todd Boland and Tim Walsh, M.U.N. Botanical Garden.
