Aumkara
Creating Sacred Space
The Retreat & Guest house is located in Prainha de Cima, looking out to Sea and Sao Jorge Island, the design is made up of three buildings that sit centered around a large circular garden mandala that we call the heart chakra. It is a sacred geometry inspired space that will be a wonderful place to practice meditation and yoga.
The project suffered a set back as we had submittted our overall plans to the tourism department for the Azores to avail of EU funding for our Eco tourism project however the project was not deemed to meet the criteria on our orginal design, and subsequently the grants from the EU were pulled before we had a chance to have our plans ammended and accepted. As a result we are in the process of resubmitting the designs, which had been approved planning under the orginal application, to make them more affordable to build. The current design below, is for the retreat center, consisting of 9 guest bedrooms, a yoga and art studio and a meditation hall, as well as a beautiful open plan dining and sitting area that looks out at our incredible view. The two ruins, are been repurposed to serve as an office and utility and store room and a 1 bed studio. with further guest bedrooms on the ground flopr and there is in addition a further building that offers 2 more guest bedrooms in the lower field of the property
Below is a 3D model of the sacred geometry inspired center which sits at the heart of the project which we are in the process of resubmitting to the planning authorities.
The Bodhi House
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Bodhi House
Consists of the private quarters, or home for Aumkara's founders/managers on the first floor, and on the ground floor has two guest bedrooms overlooking the garden and sea
it is located on the lower part of the plot on the site of one of the ruins..
Yoga Nidra Cottage
Yoga Nidra Cottage, contains the final two guest bedrooms for the retreat center.
Both are ensuite, and have the capacity to have two people sharing in twin rooms, or as a doube bedroom residence.
All the rooms have this capibility to be multifunctional allowing us to have between 6 and 12 guests at the same time.
The rooms have a varanda with beautiful views out over the sea to Sao Jorge Island.
The build will be lead by an experienced team of locally sourced professional tradesmen and crafts men and women. We hope to use as many sustainable and integrated building techniques as is appropriate to the site however due to our goal of gaining grants, planning restrictions (being in a seismic area) and that we will be restoring two ruins, we will be building mostly using standard construction techniques and locally sourced natural stone and timber for the majourity of the build. However we hope to build a cob feature wall on the main house, and integrating solar power and solar heaters and pumps to make it as ecological as possible. So while the build will not be carbon neutral, we hope when running to be as low impact and green as possible.
watch this space for more information.
