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On the heels of creating Shompole, a stunning eco-lodge lodge set in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, comes another innovative property from designer Anthony Russell. A low-impact, high-concept wizard, Russell focuses on properties that seem to lure natural beauty inwards, allowing Kenya’s majestic exteriors to cohabitate with luxurious, laid-back interiors. His spaces are both serenely private and breathtakingly exposed; they maximize every inch of Kenya’s great diversity of experience. At Shompole, his structures are a mix of strong and delicate: walls are opaque sheaths of loose white fabric, while roofs are formed in dramatic peaks of fine blond thatching, set like stylish hats on raw wood poles.

Enter Olarro, Russell’s newest venture. It opened two months ago on a private reserve and is located in the Loita Hills Massif, an hour-and-a-half drive form the Maasai Mara Wildlife Reserve. With just seven ultra-luxurious cottages, plus one private house, the property runs along the outer edge of the Loita wildebeests’ migration route. Olarro’s backyard also happens to be 150,000 acres of Maasai-owned land. As at Shompole, inside and outside are infused. Wide decks with glass panels where railings should be open onto sprawling countryside. The white walls of the intimate lodgings mirror the marbled white skies of pale African mornings.

As a designer, Russell is a lover of Kenya’s great beauty; as a social entrepreneur, he believes in the power of its natural resources. Olarro, like Shompole, has deep ties to its surrounding communities and environment. Russell’s resume of social programs is strong and its effects diverse. Since creating a private Maasai conservancy in the Great Rift Valley in the 1990s (the fruits of whose labor bore Shompole), Russell and his eco-tourism ventures have helped boost the local economy, develop community programs that preserve traditional culture, and protect the environment while also offering high-quality services to global travelers who seek top-notch accommodations. The results have been uplifting: a forty percent increase of wildlife in these protected areas has helped repopulate depleted stocks on private ranches in the Shompole, which in turn contributes to raised living standards of the indigenous population. Olarro, as much a feat of aesthetic vision as a work of enlightened social consciousness, aims to have similarly positive impacts in the Great Rift Valley’s southern swaths.

Getting There: Olarro can be reached via private charter (30 minutes from Nairobi) or via a one-and-a-half-hour drive from the Keekorok Gate of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.

When to Go: The warmest months are December through March; cooler temperatures are found from May through September (avoid the rain season in April and May).

Rates & Contact: Rates start at $590 per person, per night, for full board in one of the seven Olarro Lodges. Double occupancy rates start at $1440 in the Little Olarro Luxury Suite (full board). Daily conservation fees of $30-$60 are additional. The Lodge is closed in the month of May.