Between coloring, slab processing and enveloping surface textures
The inspiration for Riad Nyla Wellness and Spa in Marrakech stems from the need to establish a place to decompress from the chaos of the medina. Built with a multicultural soul, the body is based on the plan of a typical traditional Moroccan house converted into a “maison d’hôtes” and is designed following a dual dialectic: “tradition-cosmopolitanism” and “luxury-intimacy”. Passing through the large wooden doors, you leave the noise of the city behind and enter the reception area and the main courtyard, surrounded by the typical columned porch, together with the Ya Amar Suite, the kitchen and the restaurant.
The Riad’s state-of-the-art systems are designed to ensure maximum comfort all year round, thanks to an integrated system of solar heat pumps and thermal/electrical energy storage. Technological innovation and comfort find their free expression, without neglecting the typical Moroccan identity, which emerges in the local architectural elements, such as the arches of the doors, the carpentry with traditional motifs, the zelij, typical glazed majolicas. And ample space is also given to aesthetic sophistication and attention to detail, with Laminam ceramic surfaces applied on floors, walls and furnishing elements, chosen by architect Mattia Siviero and designer Corinne Dressler. The aesthetics of Riad Nyla can be found in the Laminam Effect, a typical interior total-look, here revisited in a Moroccan key, with five collections (I Naturali, Seta, Ossido, Calce and IN-SIDE) applied in 10 shades and four surface finishes. An extremely wide range, many dimensions (from 1000×1300 m to the extra-large slab 1620×3240 mm), manifold thicknesses, textural effects and processes that have made it possible to realise the stylistic ideas of the designers, exponentially multiplying their creative possibilities.
The layout of Riad Nyla is developed around the concept developed by interior designer Corinne Dressler of the ‘back to the source’, i.e. human well-being in relation to natural elements. A journey that begins in the wellness center, with the deep brown of the Porfido Marrone of the IN-SIDE series for the walls and columns of the pool, as well as the poolside. The reception decorated in Calacatta Oro Venato Natural also communicates a simple yet elegant welcome, echoing the nuance in the Polished finish for the desk cladding. Clean yet enveloping shapes evoke a desire for an ancestral spirit and a return to perfect, pure forms. We also find this basic idea in the shapes of the washbasins, which are round and made to measure in Laminam ceramics (Noir Desir Natural in the wellness centre and Calce Avorio in one of the Suites). Most of the materials used for the interior design of Riad Nyla are opaque, except for the traditionally glazed zelij majolicas.
The extra-large size ceramic slabs create a striking seamless surface in the rooms and common areas. The Ya Amar Suite is furnished with floors and walls in Calacatta Oro Venato Polished, chosen in large 1000×3000 mm slabs: an ivory-white horizon crossed by prominent veins turning from brown to gold and continuing uninterrupted on the floor and along the entire wall of the room.
From the suite to the wellness center, from white to black: even for the wellness area, it is the clear vein of Noir Desir that attracts the eye as it runs across the large 1620×3240 mm slabs of the walls and floor. If the large sizes express the aesthetic character of Laminam ceramics, one of the surprises of the Riad Nyla project lies instead in the variety of processes made possible thanks to the slab technology. Compared to traditional majolica, the installation of the Laminam slab, cut into small tiles, also allows the material to be perfectly levelled out on the surface, as in the mosaic work chosen for the hammam in Bianco Lasa on the floor or in Noir Desir for the barrel vault of the wellness center. The horizontal ivory vein is broken by the cutting work and immediately taken up again, in a perpendicular direction, on the next tile, thus inviting the eye of the observer to ‘reconstruct’ the original design like a jigsaw. The technical performance of the material remains unchanged (ease of cleaning, high hygiene), while enhancing its aesthetic effect.
Stylistically, Riad Nyla’s design favors an interplay of alternations: colors and surface textures, large sizes and made-to-measure work. The succession of light colors and dark notes is always particularly refined: the contrast is evident in the floor of the Kaïa Suite, for example, with the Bruno shades of the Ossido series (metal look) and Calce Avorio (series inspired by a freshly plastered wall) worked in mosaic to reproduce the typical pattern of traditional Moroccan houses.
The final effect for the visitor who experiences Riad Nyla is that of a stay in a luxuriously designed, but never overwhelming environment.
