A New Hotel in Morelos Combines Local Mexican Elements With Brutalist Architecture

Mexican architect Alfredo Cano of T3arc recently completed Hotel Huayacan, a 27,986-square-foot, 40-room hotel with robust stone facades.

Located in Jiutepec, Morelos, Mexico, on the site of an old poultry farm, the hotel is composed of five sturdy stone volumes that are separated by well-ventilated, sun-drenched courtyards. 

The volumes are laid out like two sides of a triangle with a pool located in the angle between the two sides. In its vertex is the lobby, a 39-foot-high volume that opens to the sky—allowing cool breezes to circulate on both sides of the building. 

The structural combination of concrete and regionally-sourced stone is reflective of Mexican architecture and alludes to the monuments of the ancient Aztecs.

Constructed with load-bearing walls and prefabricated concrete roofs, brutalist and modernist influences coexist here, while Mexican aesthetics reveal themselves through the materials and patterns of the stone parapets on some of the balconies.

The lobby is accessed through a narrow passageway with a concrete canopy that's interwoven with wood brise-soleils that allow sunlight to flood the interiors. 

To take full advantage of Jiutepec’s year-round warm weather, plenty of open-air patios are incorporated into the design.

All the guest rooms have simple, predominately-white interiors with plastered voussoirs, white polished-concrete floors with Yucatan tiles, and balconies that look out to landscaped gardens.