After falling in love with the Busanga Plains, we built Chisa Busanga Camp to mimic its surrounds through beautiful architecture and environmentally conscious design.
Chisa is the Nyanja word for ‘birds nest’, and the rooms were inspired by the weaver bird nests that decorate the trees here. Sitting on a small tree-lined island, the camp uses only solar power as do the game drive vehicle and bicycles used to explore the watery dambos beyond.
Chisa Busanga Camp celebrates the natural and cultural heritage of the Busanga Plains, a place that will leave an indelible imprint on your mind, as it has on ours.
When we started with the Chisa Busanga Camp design, Green Safaris’ Founder, Vincent and his close friend Bert Meerstadt, an architect from the Netherlands, were wandering together around the island where the camp would be situated, in the middle of the Busanga Plains. And at one moment during their walk together, they both looked up and stared at a beautiful bird’s nest. In a split second and without words, they both realised what the design of this new camp would be – nests!
Weavers’ nests make ingenious homes and we wanted to replicate this in some way, but of course on a larger scale for people. The goal was to offer unique and fascinating accommodation as well as create beautiful spaces where guests could reflect on nature’s wonder and ingenuity. What we were soon to be reminded, however, is that nature has had millions of years to perfect her designs. Our experience at nest building at this point was zero.
