Madwaleni River Lodge

Project details

Design

Luxury Frontiers

Photography

Sven Musica, Love Africa Marketing

Location

Babanango Game Reserve, in Zululand, South Africa

Featured products

Bamboo X-treme^® Decking

2000 m2

Bamboo UltraDensity^®

1100 m2

Bamboo Elite Flooring

100 m2

Customer trust

Luxury Frontiers designs sustainable and immersive resorts and lodges in naturally beautiful locations all over the globe. In choosing the materials and finishes for the new lodge, the owners and designers had to take the harsh local climatic conditions into account, whilst keeping durability and sustainability very much at the forefront of the selection criteria. For the exterior decking and interior flooring for the new lodge, a high-end quality product was necessary, in keeping with the luxury design. Once again, they had specified and used MOSO^® Bamboo UltraDensity^® , MOSO^® Bamboo Elite and MOSO^® Bamboo X-treme^® Decking in other previous luxury lodge projects in different parts of southern Africa, thus they had no hesitation in agreeing with the owners’ choice.

“We decided to test a variety of products by creating a mini test deck close to the site. We left 5 different decking products (2 types of hardwood timber, a thermo-treated timber, a leading wood-plastic composite (WPC) decking and MOSO Bamboo X-treme^®) out in the harsh African sun on the banks of the Umfolozi River for a year. At the end of the year the MOSO Bamboo X-treme^® Decking was still in perfect condition and had fared the best of the 5 products. That, combined with their carbon-neutral status (during lifespan), led us to choose MOSO^®. When it came to the interior flooring it was a no-brainer to go with the same product brand, given its durability and high-quality appearance.”

Andrew McGill, Product Manager at African Habitat Conservancy

A perfect match

In fact, MOSO^® Bamboo Products are an ideal fit for nature lodges and other eco-sensitive and green building projects. The fast speed of growth of the bamboo plants make this a rapidly renewable resource, supporting completely sustainable annual harvesting. The rapid growth of bamboo also means unrivalled CO2 sequestration and thus the Construction Stored Carbon metric of the MOSO^® Bamboo Products is higher than most timber species. As impressive as the “green” credentials are, this alone is not sufficient. The performance of the products must also be at the highest levels to justify their use in these projects. MOSO^® Bamboo Products are up to the challenge; they are generally harder, more stable and have a higher fire rating than even the best tropical hardwood timbers.

Combining durability and elegance

The result – the recently opened complete and fully functional Madwaleni River Lodge – really showcases the qualities of these products. Harder than any timber, made from a rapidly renewable resource, CO2 neutral (during lifespan) and with the amazing durability of an expected lifetime of at least 25 years, the MOSO^® Bamboo Decking and Flooring are luxurious, beautiful and have a natural warm appeal which is fully in keeping with the aesthetics and ethos of this spectacular new lodge.