Zil Pasyon – the rehabilitation of an island jewel

by STB

The project to develop Zil Pasyon is in full swing and, the way that work is progressing, it is clear that it involves a lot more than mere construction work.

A certain philosophy is driving this island’s development, where already four of the 28 residences are now gracing the skyline as icons to stealth architecture, complete with swimming pool ceilings, sumptuous living spaces and eagle-eye views – to roll back time and recreate the pristine environment Zil Pasyon once must have possessed.  Sixteen of the thirty-five hotel villas have also been completed in a project due to be completed during 2010.

Central to this process is the conservationist and landscape engineer, Steve Hill, renowned for having played a major role in the much celebrated landscaping of Frégate Island.  Steve is now carefully planning the full ecological rehabilitation of the island by removing alien species of flora and replacing them with the endemic and indigenous species that once thrived on the island, so creating a food chain that, it is hoped, will eventually tempt some rare species of Seychelles birdlife back to their long-abandoned island home.

In line with this philosophy, sites for residences and the coastline’s hotel villas are only chosen after a rigorous inspection and full debate of the aesthetic and conservation issues involved.  This is one development project where the ‘site is king’ and where a most discernible process is being followed the result of which is a rooted, balanced and ecologically-friendly’ project that ‘belongs’.