In Croatia, far from city bustle and surrounded by sea and palm trees, Lafodia Sea Resort enjoys an attractive location, on an island with special natural characteristics.
The Lopud island, near the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia, is part of the Elafiti archipelago, the last inhabited islands where is possible to stay in the southern Croatia, away from traffic, pollution and urban stress.
The luxury hotel, a modern four-star property, consists of two nine-levels buildings, connected together through the first two levels, where are located the reception, the restaurant-kitchen and the pool. The structure lays down the natural slope of the terrain, respecting the geomorphological features of the position of the hotel. Inside the two buildings a beautiful and sophisticated garden was built: by means of circular stairs and panoramic terraces, it takes the customer into the forest, south of the hotel.
The intervention
The building has involved:
- the construction of a hotel complex of 13,500 m2 surface with 182 rooms, equipped with all amenities, 6 lifts installed, 3 cafés, infinity pool with panoramic view, domotics, optical fibre.
- a 750 m2 wellness center on two levels, including Thermarium (sauna, bio sauna, Turkish bath, silence room), indoor whirlpool, outdoor whirlpool and 6 special treatment rooms.
- A 35,000 m2 park surrounding the building, in the process tree planting.
The intervention has been complex due to the difficult environmental conditions of Lopud Island, the distance of the place from the ground and the small construction site space.
Besides searching for top quality materials, particular efforts have been devoted to availability, preventive quality control, portability and logistic of the supplies.
The used materials * were transported and delivered at the port of Dubrovnik, boarded at scheduled intervals on small barges and carried by sea to the dock in front of the hotel. Successively, the goods were distributed to the construction site using a forklift, when possible, or with construction site means such as “wheeled loaders” or “dumpers”.
The construction lasted 3 years and involved more than 100 companies, with 150-170 workers simultaneously present on the building site.
*Used materials:
There are many types of materials used for the construction of the various structures of the Lafodia Sea Resort. First of all, Marazzi Group was chosen for the ceramic floors and walls. The glass mosaics, mainly used for the wellness center and the swimming pools, were provided and customized by a leader company of the sector, Sicis.
Litokol products were used to fix and seal the mosaics: the tiles have been affixed and secured with the components Litoelastic adhesive and plastered with the epoxy sealant Starlike® in Travertine and White Ice colors. The artistic mosaics were instead plastered with the Crystal variant of the translucent Starlike®sealant, particularly suitable for the neutral stucco work of a similar decorative cladding. Litonet Gel was used in the final step to remove any residual epoxy halos. The bathroom fixtures by Hatria were sealed with the silicones by OTTOSEAL, in the same colors of Starlike® sealant, to give chromatic continuity to the construction.
Furthermore, the steel profiles by Genesis finish the walls, decorated with mosaics, to give greater elegance to the wellness center. Starlike®, in the Decor version particularly suitable for continuous impervious surfaces, was used also for the decoration of the outer covering of the indoor whirlpool. The special facilities of the spa were provided by Happy Sauna, specialized in wellness centers, while the thermal break aluminum doors and windows and the related profiles were supplied by Schueco.
