86 the World Of Hospitality
The Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge
Muza Lab’
s Inge Moore Completes Redesign of
Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge –
Botswana’
s New Eco Destination
International Resorts
The Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge in
Botswana has reopened following its redesign
by Inge Moore, creating ‘an explorer’s camp
for today’s explorers’. Located in the Chobe
National Park where the big five roam, the
skies are large and the land is washed with
the muted colours of the Savute, the lodge
has become a tented retreat infused with the
romance of a bush camp. Here, guests can
discover and connect with the natural world,
and slow down to the rhythm of the land that
surrounds them.
“I have a huge love and respect for nature
and the wilderness: it’s something we as
human beings need to cherish and protect.
So, working on this project has been a real
passion, honour and a huge responsibility,”
says Inge. “My design not only seeks to
create spaces where people can embrace the
experience but does this with the greatest of
care for the environment”.
The public areas are entirely new, each tented
room constructed on a timber-based platform
to minimise environmental impact. Together,
they form an intimate cluster of tented rooms
on a footprint that is smaller than before.
Luxury Frontiers, the architects of one-of-a-
kind tented resorts, worked closely with the
Muza Lab team in refurbishing the existing
guestrooms and in creating and installing the
new public spaces. These include a kitchen/
dining room, lounge and bar, library, spa and
arrival lobby, as well as a very special viewing
hide where guests can sit and watch the
wildlife at eye-level as they gather to drink in
the watering hole.
To experience Inge’s design is to get really
close to nature as a modern-day explorer.
The park is not only the home of abundant
wildlife, it is the location of the fabled Savute
Channel, which flows for years like a river
into the Savute Marsh, and then, without
reason, dries up before eventually flowing
again, creating a dynamic and ever-changing
habitat. Unsurprisingly, the word “Savute”
means unpredictable. The area is also home
to the Gubatsa Hills, formed 980 million years
ago during volcanic movement, which rise 90
meters high out of a completely flat landscape
and bear reminders of the nomadic San people
in their rock art.