Hospitality Design - November 2016 - 134

new icons

the connectors

eduardo castillo, oliver
ripley, and kfir levy
Founders
Habitas

just connecting with one another, the art, the music." They decided to take
matters into their own hands, creating the environment, the content, and
bringing together "an amazing group of people to see what happens,"
Levy adds.
The first invitation-only Habitas "high-intensity immersive experience"
took place on Halloween two years ago with fewer than 200 people gathering
at a 50-acre ranch, complete with a lake and waterfall, 45 minutes outside
of Los Angeles. Then, after meeting and partnering with Ripley, a serial
entrepreneur and investor, through Ripley's business partner, others have
followed suit-in Tulum, Mexico; Ibiza, Spain; and as pop-ups at other
events. Think luxe white safari tents filled with Persian rugs and Moroccan
lanterns, and attendees listening to talks or workshops while lounging
under the shade of a tree, doing yoga in nature, taking in sunset music
sessions, and enjoying a group dinner that's developed in harmony with the
surroundings and the people. "Everything has to tie in together," says Levy.
"If Club Med, Soho House, and Cirque du Soleil all came together, you would
get Habitas," adds Ripley.
Crowd curation has been organic to date (through word of mouth and
people registering on the website), but attendee building will become even
more important as they are taking their concept one step further,
creating permanent, year-round homes for the Habitas community
White tents line a lake at Habitas' summer 2015 event
outside of Los Angeles
that emulate what one might experience during an event. Explains
Levy: "Imagine checking into a hotel but there's really no check-in
and checkout process, no bill at the end of the day. You're greeted
just like if you showed up at your friend's vacation home in the most
beautiful place in the world."
Some will be developed through what they call land activation,
where they build a destination on a previously unusable plot. In
fact, one of the first Habitas residences will be on the north end of a
friend's property in Tulum, where in the next two months they are
setting up a 40-unit hotel-like home on almost 500 feet of beachfront
thanks to a system of shipping containers filled with infrastructure.
And in Malibu, they are partnering with an existing circa-1940s
13-room hotel that sits on five acres of raw land. The hotel is in the
midst of a renovation, and Habitas will take over part of the unused
property, double the room inventory with their structures, and put
on various events throughout the year. These homes, says Ripley,
are a solution to the events' limitations, allowing "people, not only
the existing community of 10,000 but also the wider community, to
engage and become part of Habitas."
Though the events are in picturesque locations, Castillo says it's
Photo by CHRISTIAN LAMB
the programming that's the star. "It's nice to have a beautiful beach
Ask Eduardo Castillo, Kfir Levy, and Oliver Ripley to describe Habitas'
in front of you, but how you use that beach for the purposes of Habitas is
mission in one sentence, and their response is: "to connect people and
what we are always trying to reinvent." At the same time, adds Levy, "there's
create a community around meaningful experiences in the most inspiring
something wonderfully inspiring about taking people off the beaten path
locations in the world."
outside of major cities." Looking ahead, Levy sees a version of Habitas where
Castillo and Levy, who were both in the events industry-Castillo as a
they invite people to "locations and destination they've never heard of."
DJ and musician and Levy as a designer and producer-"felt a gap where
Overall, Levy says, Habitas is in response to a shift in what consumers
people are looking for these experiences, and the best place for them to go
want. "People need these types of connections. They want to go back to their
would be different festivals around the world," says Levy. "All these things
tribal instincts and have these experiences together because they're human
were happening in the festival, but none of them was conducive to people
beings, and they're supposed to feel this way."

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