Genius loci
Seven Hotels in Seven Landscapes
From the Patagonia of Chile to the remotest islands of the Pacific Ocean and through the canyons of the state of Utah, the meadows of Portugal’s Alentejo region, the gorges of Oman, the desert of Inner Mongolia, and a tropical enclave in Vietnam, rich in medicinal water. This is the global journey proposed here: a voyage through seven landscapes and as many hotel establishments catering to different clienteles and designed with a diversity of strategies, but all sensitively addressing the particular climates and other specificities of their respective locations. While Hotel Awasi in the Chilean pampa uses local timber for a series of modular pavilions integrated in the landscape, the Amangiri resort in Utah presents constructions clustered together in the manner of traditional Indian villages. The idea of evoking a native settlement and building it with local materials is also evident in the other projects featured. With its white and compact buildings the Ecork Hotel takes inspiration from the fortified towns of the area, just like the Alila Jabal Akhdar resort, perched high on an impressive cliff. For its part, Hotel Lotus is organized like a temporary camp of yurts, the Nha Trang resort adopts the typical circular form of certain Vietnamese neighborhoods, and finally, the hotel in Vanuatu reinterprets a local village with the aesthetic of rough concrete.