Hotel of the Wind

Chilean architectural firm Cazú Zegers designed the Tierra Patagonia Hotel, a facility located at the entrance of Torres del Paine National Park, on the shore of Lake Sarmiento, one of the limits of this National Park in Patagonia, Chile.


The water of the lake acts as a supporting plane for the Paine massif and its magnificence made it necessary to conceive an extended project in dialogue with the vast territory. The form seeks to merge with the metaphysical landscape, not to interrupt it, with a shape of the hotel reminiscent of an old fossil, a prehistoric animal beached on the shore of the lake, similar to those found and studied by Charles Darwin.


The building concept is an organic structure that rises out from the land, like a fold in the terrain that the wind has carved in the sand. It is anchored to the ground with stone slopes and is completely covered in washed Lenga wood paneling. This finish gives the hotel a silvery sheen, typical of old wooden houses worn away by winter. The spatial solution aims for warm and cozy spaces structured by internal pathways, allowing the building to inhabit its extension.

Hotel Tierra Patagonia, Lago Saramiento, Chile
Program: hotel
Architects: Cazú Zegers, Rodrigo Ferrer, Roberto Benavente
Team: Grupo Aira, Estudio AI (Arquitectura Integrada)
Client: Katari S.A
Structural engineering: Enzo Valladares y Asociados
Technical inspection: Coz Cía. ltda, Gustavo Soto
Plumbing: Olegario Pérez
Electrical systems: Sergio Alemparte
Acoustics: George Somerhoff
Lighting: Paulina Sir, Gaspar Arenas
Structure: Reinforced Concrete
Interiors: Carolina del Piano, Alexandra Edwards
Site area: 70 ha
Built area: 4,900 sqm
Completion: 2011