Morada Azul hotel and landscape, Jalisco

2020 –

Location: Jalisco, Mexico

Type: Hospitality

Status: Technical Design

Budget: £20,000,000

In collaboration with Taller de arquitectura sbh, Polen Paisaje, SOMBRA & Oficina de Resilencia Urbana.

Located in Los Altos de Jalisco region, an area renowned for its Tequila production the project is for a high-end hotel with spa and wellness centre set within a natural and regenerative landscape. The programme is divided into three main parts; seven clusters of rooms (21 suites in total), a club house and a spa and wellness centre, whose buildings are spread out within the landscape.

The typology of the courtyard was taken as the starting point for each part programme. The different elements of the hotel reinterpret this traditional architectural typology. The central courtyard serves as a device for managing circulation and guest intimacy. The courtyards act as the focal points for various communal or social aspects of the buildings and allows the landscape to become a key element of the character of the buildings, with each cluster possessing a unique planting and landscape scheme, lending each a different character throughout the year. The courtyard also provides bio-climatic benefits in relation to air circulation and the creation of cool, sheltered spaces and serves as a form of informal meeting space as well as helping to create privacy with each threshold to a suite deliberately positioned and orientated as to provide views out to the wider landscape rather than a closed door.

With the intention of reducing the amount of concrete and cement used in the construction, the use of traditional local materials stone and timber, reinterpreted to form a contemporary expression and construction methodology of load bearing stone. The architecture was conceived to work in harmony with the landscape design (rainwater harvesting and reuse), and architectural devices such as pergolas are used to reduce solar gain and ensure that the buildings are as passive as possible. The result of this design is a significant reduction in embodied carbon which helps the project meet LEED and WELL environmental certification levels.

The landscape design by Polen Paisaje creates a series of different gardens between and around the buildings using endemic plant species and regenerative landscape methods. The landscape incorporates an integrated water retention system of wetlands, pools, ponds and streams, helping to reverse several decades of extractavist agricultural activities.