HOTEL REVIEW


ABOVE: The ‘briefing lounge’ where guests gather before venturing out into the surrounding forest


found myself endlessly pressed up against the windows, like a boy in a skyscraper transfixed by the view. And that, of course, is precisely what Sevilla and his team intended: “It was never our aim for the hotel to compete with nature,” he explains, “we hope that the lodge will complement the reserve and enable guests to feel connected with the forest at all times.” Interior designer Diego Arteta – one of Ecuador’s leading designers – revealed that the vision was also inspired by dictates from the jungle - “the high humidity level made me think to design the closets for the guestrooms as open square grids that would let air go through it, and then we took that idea into the hotel as a unifying concept and created open wallcoverings that we’ve used throughout the


corridors. We chose furniture too that was very pure in its form and would have that same feeling of transparency. I wanted to have things that you could actually see through, and see the jungle beyond.” But as subtle as Arteta’s vision is, it is bold in equal measure. Striking red hues – lifted directly from rocks found in the reserve – jump out from screens and floating curvilinear ceiling shapes. Slate floors and black steel pillars starkly counter-point white- washed walls. Everywhere there is contrast – like being inside a Mondrian painting – but it is a complimentary one, the interior’s hard lines and raw primary colours accentuating the soft shapes and subtle greens of the forest and leading the eye ever outwards. The lodge features only 22 rooms


044 JULY / AUGUST 2012 WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM


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