-
Architects: Jonas Retamal Arquitectos, Laura Houssin
- Year: 2014
-
Photographs:Pablo Casals-Aguirre
Text description provided by the architects. Chiloé Leisure Centre is a hotel built entirely of native woods from southern Chile, designed for rest and relaxation, for a leisure time to be alone in the midst of nature, watching from above the Castro fjord and its city.
It is located on Chiloe Island, 16 km from the city of Castro, on the Rilan Peninsula, in 20 hectares of grassland and forest, where we developed this project based on two main decisions:
The first: The project would be made of independent buildings, at the scale of the place, in order to achieve a low impact on the landscape and offer the user different ways of enjoying the center, within all of its geographic dimension.
The second: The routes that connect the volumes would be natural corridors formed by bridges between myrtle forests and trails through the countryside, where access to facilities and viewpoints appear to stop and admire the scenery and birdlife.
To inhabit this territory, we create 3 large groups:
The Territorial Hotel, made up of 7 volumes, yields spaces inspired in the forces of nature. It is composed of:
-
a reception building, dining and living room next to the fireplace.
-
Three themed rooms isolated for a more intimate stay. Wind, develops vertically creating ample spaces and view from the rooftop terrace, Earth, inserted in a cut of the slope it is considered as a single material simulating light and the shape of a cave, Forest, consisting of 2 large leaves immersed in the tree canopy.
-
a wing with 6 bedrooms that are turned looking toward framed views of different points of the fjord, from its entrance to the wetlands that host flamingos and black-necked swans.
Rural Project: With the Original House restored, fire pit, guest house, chicken coops and apple trees within 5 hectares of sheep grazing areas, it allows visitors to know the traditional way of living in Chiloé and share local customs.
The Forest: where next to the native vegetation and the river is a series of connecting walkways, gazebos, and sauna to walk through and relax, watching the existing birdlife.
The construction techniques are based on the culture of Chiloé wood, so all the buildings are set on Guaitecas cypress pilotis. The structures, siding, windows and furniture are of Canelo, Tepa, Tenio, mañio, cypress and larch, native woods that along the Chiloé wool create warm and inviting spaces, where the blue and cold landscape of the island is contemplated.
All buildings are designed under bioclimatic principles for the use of passive energy from the Sun, Wind and Rain, to minimize operating costs and impact on the environment. For this reason, this year 2014 it was awarded with the S Seal for Sustainable Tourism by the National Tourism Service.
