Building with trees in the Maldives. Welcome to the Patina Hotel and Resort.

Designed by Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan, the 90 Beach Suites and Villas offer a peaceful retreat amidst the island's natural beauty. The resort, adjacent to Fari Marina and Beach Club, provides ample opportunities for relaxation and enjoyment, with easy access to a plaza of boutiques and restaurants.

Suspended in the remote Indian Ocean, the hotel and resort exemplifies using renewable raw materials and sustainable construction methods.

Stora Enso delivered 39 containers of climate-positive building materials to construct the US$500 million luxury resort. The resort highlights the rising demand for low carbon materials while showcasing sustainable buildings and the latest in eco-supply chain logistics.

The Maldives, standing less than two meters above sea level, is predicted to be the first nation to disappear as sea levels rise. In other words, this is a construction project in the heart of the climate crisis where every material decision and process matters.

Given the environmental factors and the remote location, it was important for the developers to work with sustainability specialists, Stora Enso to foresee the entire life cycle of the development.

Stora Enso supplied over 2,000 cubic meters of Sylva CLT, Walls, and Floors and 16 cubic meters of infill timbers, all PEFC-certified from sustainably managed European forests.

The Sylva™ elements only generated 106 tonnes of greenhouse gases (CO₂e) to manufacture and only 135 tonnes of CO₂e to transport. Compared to the 1534 tonnes of carbon dioxide that the trees removed while growing and will store in the building, this is a small fraction. Choosing Sylva CLT elements instead of non-renewables avoided more than 2,300 tonnes of greenhouse gases. (Source: Stora Enso Carbon Calculator).

Efficient load planning reduced the amount of fossil fuel required for transportation. The lightweight material enabled offloading containers onto barges and ferrying them to the remote atoll.

Watch how this project went from flat-packed to finished: