Nalu

Studio Saxe has completed a boutique hotel and yoga studio set into the tropical landscape of Nosara, Costa Rica. The project is another in a long line of sustainable buildings from a practice that blend contemporary design with local craftsmanship, embracing the natural environment that surrounds and frames the architecture.

  Guests at the hotel are provided with individual pavilion ‘homes’ rather than rooms, located just a few minutes’ walk from the ocean. By breaking up the mass of the traditionally monolithic hotel, the architects were able scatter living spaces amongst the trees and create a sense of privacy while surrounded by the natural world.

Overlapping timber roofs project out over each pavilion providing shade from the intense equatorial sun. These roofs are made of recycled Teak planks, creating uneven patterns that further emphasise this tension between local craftsmanship and modern design. Rooms are connected via corridors that filter dappled sunlight down from the pergola roofs above and frame more views out the lush surroundings.

Nalu, Nosara, Costa Rica
Program: hotel
Architect: Studio Saxe
Design team: Benjamin Garcia Saxe (director), Laura Morelli (coordinator), Alejandro Gonzales and Cesar Coto
Structural engineering: Setela Alfaro
Installations: Dynamo Studio
Contractor: Construction PROS
Area: 620 sqm
Completion: 2017