Hotel Remota, Patagonia

The courtyard is an open, central space, overlooking mountains and glaciers across the water. The property, which borders the courtyard, is divided into three buildings connected by three wooden corridors. To the sides, one will find the guest rooms, while behind, the raised main building houses common spaces and amenities.

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Construction materials arrived by boat. The roof and pillars were the first to go up. Next, panels of waterproof plywood were utilized in combination with a polyurethane core to provide insulation from summer’s winds, spring’s rain, and winter’s little snowfall. The wood is coated with asphalt and covered with fine black gravel, which acts as protection from UV rays.

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Inside, everything is modern, luxurious, and cozy—a much different aesthetic from the exterior's simple structure. The grand concrete and wood pillars and the ceilings are covered with wooden trellises. Geometry is an important feature in the hotel’s design. The vertical cuts of windowpanes make for an interesting lighting effect on the walls when the Chilean sun shines through. Local, traditional decorative elements were incorporated throughout the property, including bright and bold fabrics and textiles, which provide a striking contrast with the dark wood furniture.

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There are 72 rooms in the hotel. Lenga wood, a local cherry wood, is used throughout the warm and comfortable guest rooms. Slabs of wood run vertically floor to ceiling and are integrated into the headboard. Their raw beauty defines the space, both figuratively and literally: they divide the sleeping area and the bathroom and help with soundproofing.

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One of the most outstanding attributes of Remota is its efficiency. In an interview with Architecture Week, architect Del Sol listed the hotel’s energy-saving features: “The orientation to the sun ensures passive solar energy absorption, and the yellow-shaded electric lights are of low-wattage. The bathrooms and laundry systems boast low-consumption water fittings. The spare interior is uncluttered by anything unnecessary. This not only conserves resources, but contributes to the feeling of serenity.”

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Del Sol chose to source locally for the project. From surrounding forests, builders gathered dead native Lenga wood. Every piece of furniture was customized and built on-site by the same local laborers who developed Hotel Remota’s structure. The architect takes pride in this fact, as he treasures the fruits of human craftsmanship over the industrial and impersonal. Certainly, those pieces add character to the hotel’s common spaces, along with spots of color here and there.

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In an effort to unify the hotel with the wild landscape, the roofs are carpeted with two-foot-tall wild grass, the same grass that covers the surrounding area. This also helps with insulation and energy-efficiency. One of the corridors that connect the buildings is left uncovered. This leads to a separate complex with a heated indoor pool, Finnish sauna, and outdoor Jacuzzi.

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The hotel’s "relaxation complex" is called SPOT, or Sala Para el Ocio Total (Room for Total Leisure Time). When guests are tired from hiking, horseback riding, and exploring the great outdoors, they can book a massage. Treatment rooms are designed to be warm, dark, and calming.

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Architect Germán Del Sol reveals that the Remota looks best at dusk and at night, when from afar “its warm yellow lights [are] gleaming… its interior full of light revealed in part through the vertical sequence of vertical glass.” He says it was important to incorporate Latin American attitudes toward architecture into the project. As he explains, they have “an ancient tradition of works of architecture that stand in the midst of nature, just to bring signs of life to places where shepherds, or merchants use to pass or to stay by night, or where people gather once in a while, to celebrate once again their ancient rites.” With Hotel Remota, he carries on this tradition, bringing spirit and movement to this isolated wonderland.

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