CLAD people
Ario Ferri
Ario Ferri co-founder, Natura Vive
PROJECT: Sleeping capsules, Sacred Valley of Cuzco, Peru
Peruvian tour operator Natura Vive is offering guests the opportunity to climb 1,312ft (400m) up a cliff face or hike a trail along zip-lines to sleep in a transparent hanging bedroom.
The sleeping capsules, created and designed by Natura Vive co-owner Ario Ferri, sit 1,312ft (400m) high on a cliff face in the Sacred Valley of Cuzco. They provide explorers with a 300 degree view of the landscape.
Three pods have been installed and are handcrafted from aerospace aluminium and weather-resistant polycarbonate. Despite being only 24ft (7.3m) long and 8ft (2.4m) tall and wide, each pod can sleep up to eight people and comes equipped with a bedroom, dining area and private bathroom.
The pods also feature six windows and four ventilation ducts. The lights are powered by solar panels, solving the problem of sourcing power on a mountainside.
Husband and wife team Ario Ferri and Natalia Rodriguez launched tour operator Natura Vive in 2009 with the via ferrata circuit, a ‘mountain adventure’ experience which enables inexperienced climbers to scale a 300m cliff face within the Sacred Valley using a steel ladder and cable system. They later introduced a series of interconnected ziplines, to help people get down from the mountain. “When we had the via ferrata and the ziplines, the idea of sleeping up in the mountains without using portaledges started to go around my mind. I was inspired by a book I was reading at the time about space missions,” said Ario Ferri.
The capsules took a year to build on the ground, and a further three months to install up the mountainside. “Each capsule has three modules per suite, so we had nine modules to assemble,” said Ferri. “Installing them took ropes, cables, pulleys...and lots of guts.
“The capsules offer a unique experience of sleeping hanging on to a cliff with just transparent walls acting as a barrier between you and your surroundings.”
The experience of a climb or zip-line trail along the mountainside with a night in the sleeping capsules costs around US$311 (E287, £200) per person. This includes dinner, a bottle of wine (just in case the heights don’t make you dizzy enough) and breakfast.
From climate change to resource scarcity, Exploration Architecture uses biomimicry to address some of the world’s major challenges. Its founder tells us how
