Oaxaca

In the cultural heart of Oaxaca, a crumbling colonial compound has been reimagined as a twelve-room boutique hotel that bridges Mexican craft traditions and contemporary architectural sensibility. The project began with the courtyards — those open-air rooms that define Oaxacan domestic architecture — and worked inward, letting light and landscape dictate the plan.

Local materials anchor every decision. Walls are finished in polished earth plaster using pigments sourced from the surrounding valleys — terracotta, ochre, burnt sienna. Floors are hand-poured terrazzo incorporating fragments of local green cantera stone. The furniture program, developed in collaboration with artisans from the Tlacolula Valley, features hand-woven textiles, carved volcanic stone basins, and black clay (barro negro) lighting fixtures.

The courtyard architecture is both sanctuary and social space. Mature jacaranda trees filter violet light into the central patio, while a secondary courtyard houses a mezcal bar framed by raw adobe walls. Every material tells the story of its place — architecture as a form of cultural continuity.