Meet Bangkok-based hotel architect Bill Bensley, the man who is famously known as the “Willy Wonka of hotel design.” His latest creation only further proves his out-of-the-box thinking: a resort that cages the humans and lets the exotic and endangered animals roam free.
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The cages for humans will actually be 2,400 hotel rooms and he has tacit approval on the idea of relocating abused animals from zoos all over China, to be released onto the roughly 2,000-hectare piece of land where the human zoo will be located. According to CNN, “a glimpse of his gloriously illustrated ‘overall masterplan’ shows how the reserve will feature individual Asia, Africa, and Australia savannahs for animals to live in their ‘natural habitats.’” The resort, named WorldWild, will give animals access to 95% of the land, and humans the remaining 5%.
WorldWild will also offer exhibitions on the illegal wildlife trade and experiences such as treetop walks through a dense monkey forest and an Indigenous Australian rock painting.
According to CNN, Bensley is a lifelong conservationist who deeply cares about what humans are doing to the planet. Bensley says he believes “everyone has a part to play” in climate change, with young people and their social media accounts holding huge power when it comes to shaping the future of sustainable travel.
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“If I’m given a piece of land that is virgin, I look at it as though no matter what we do with it — and I’m a pretty good architect — we are going to make it worse,” says Bensley. “So it’s all about mitigating damage… How do we build with minimal intervention on the land? Our land is a precious resource, we can’t just rip it up.”
WorldWild is expected to open in Wuchuan, located in southern China’s Guangdong province, in 2023.
