Interior Design & Procurement
Installation
Standards documentation
The brief was to create a luxurious camp, where you still felt very connected to the wilderness of the surrounding environment. A team of us flew down to the Selous to scout the location and mark out the 8 tented bedrooms, the beginning of one wild interiors adventure!
Asilia Africa's Roho ya Selous is in the heart of Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous Game Reserve).
It’s not difficult to find inspiration when you have Africa’s largest Game Reserve as your muse. We wanted to build a camp that not only provided guests with luxurious accommodation but also reflected the very essence of what Selous is all about – raw, wild and untamed Africa. The view stretches from the camp out towards a tributary of the Rufiji River, which is dotted with borassus palms along its banks. I used subtle hues of blues, greens and greys combined with textured reed walls, stone floors and hand-woven grass carpets to give the interiors a natural but modern feel. The reeds were all sourced locally and the traditional grain stompers, turned pot plants, were from the Tanzanian coastal villages not to far away.
The stretch tents were designed to unzip completely from one end to the other, embracing the natural sights and sounds beyond. It allows for an unrestricted flow from the outdoors into the bedrooms, lounge and dining room. The natural world is something that fascinated Frederick Courteney Selous, who the reserve was formerly named after. Despite having a reputation for being a big game hunter, Selous also contributed some 5000 specimens of African flora and fauna to the British Museum of Natural History, including an impressive array of butterflies.
Guests will find elements of natural wonders scattered throughout the camp. Paintings and sketches of tiger fish, Tanzanian yellow tree frogs and some Bohm’s bee-eaters, to name a few. These artworks were commissioned from artists in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, two of the countries that Selous spent time in during his explorations in Africa.
Guests arriving at Roho ya Selous should feel that they have entered a natural haven; a place of history and tranquillity that few have ever been privileged to explore.
Photography by: Stevie Mann
