TORRES DEL PAINE – A fossil-inspired hotel crafted from local resources blends weathered wood and sloping stones to showcase its surrounding mountain landscape.
The Tierra Patagonia hotel is located on the shore of Lake Sarmiento, nestled at the entrance to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.
Architects Cazu Zegers, Roberto Benavente and Rodrigo Ferrer used local materials for the building’s exterior to integrate the resort with the landscape. The objective was to emphasize the hotel’s location without disrupting the surroundings.
The exterior walls and roof are made from Patagonian Lenga wood – a silvery, weathered look to fit in with the existing landscape. From the 40 visitor rooms, a glassy grid of windows faces the mountain range.
The 60-m-long curved building resembles ‘an old fossil, a prehistoric animal beached on the lake shore, like those studied by Charles Darwin,’ says Zegers. She says she took inspiration from her years of travel in Southern Chile.
The hotel’s interior was designed by Alexandra Edwards and Carolina Delpiano, who blended local Patagonian wools, textiles and artifacts to create a peaceful atmosphere to ‘complement the architecture,’ says Edwards.
Edwards says the focus is on design, not decoration, in order to place emphasis on the coastal surroundings.
