WELCOMING reception area of Yoga+ Makati
The new buzzword in property development is environmental sustainability. With global warming, mostly brought about by our abuses on earth, coming to pass, it is high time we start being conscious about protecting our natural resources. Kudos to the property developers who have focused on sustainability for their projects.
Cocoon Boutique Hotel (www.thecocoonhotel.com) is a good example. Its aim is to be the country’s first truly eco-friendly, deluxe boutique hotel. The property is surrounded by greenery and its roof deck has lush landscaping next to the pool.
Commitment
The hotel also demonstrates its commitment to the green movement by pursuing the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED-EB) certification. Architect Alvin Tejada and engineer Benjamin Bautista, specialists in LEED accreditation, are working with the hotel management to confirm their sustainable policies and practices.
Trip Advisor, a well-known travel website, recently awarded Cocoon Hotel a Certificate of Excellence—awarded to businesses that rank in the top 10 percent worldwide for traveler feedback. Cocoon is also one of the top hotels on the website’s Travellers’ Choice Awards.
COCOON Boutique Hotel spacious guest room
Eco-friendly area
One of the most eco-friendly areas in our city is The Fort at Bonifacio Global City. So many properties and businesses there aspire for or have attained green certifications of all sorts.
Yoga+ (www.yogaplus.ph) at the Fort Legend Tower, for example, has interiors that are designed to be calming and to promote good health. Special ionizers help control the air on premises to ensure cleanliness and lack of pollutants.
The wellness center now has three branches, with Yoga+ Makati recently opening its doors at Cambridge Centre across Makati Sports Club in Salcedo Village. Rodney DiRamos, New York-trained interior designer, in cooperation with Nona Samson, a top architect, had refreshed the Yoga+ look. They have put in a calm and cozy feel combined with an industrial look to refresh the brand.
A mirrorized Yoga+ logo mounted on brushed raw cement greets guests entering the lobby. The raw concrete motif continues onto the reception desk, with refinements in white cement and granite finishing the look.
YANG Room of Yoga+ Makati
Veritable work of art
The Hall of 100 Lockers is a veritable work of art, finished in white-glazed paint and emblazoned with green stickers depicting various yoga poses. The lockers are within view of the CCTV cameras to ensure the highest level of security for members and their possessions.
An imposing but artful wooden canopy in the center of the lounge leads to the bigger of the two yoga rooms in the studio—the heated Yang Room. Infrared heaters have been installed to provide gentle and radiant heat that also kills bacteria and prevents skin wrinkles. The heaters are subtly interspersed with indirect LED lighting fixtures and speakers.
The yoga studio features a zen garden, which is both decorative and functional at the same time. The greenery minimizes air moisture and absorbs odors. A modern wall of Ecocarat stone tiles frames the garden.
Yoga+ also features a nonheated yoga room, called the Yin Room. As with the bigger Yang room, the Yin is covered with imported yoga flooring that has become the trademark of all Yoga+ Studios.
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