Plazas Hotel

Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Tucumán

Project idea

Plazas Hotel is a luxury hotel in the city of Tequila, district of Jalisco, Mexico. The idea for the project was generated through an investigation of the city's infrastructure and the needs of its habitants, primarily the scarcity of public spaces. Due to this, some of the plazas are meant to "give back" to the city, that is why they were created as public amenities. The building is not only for the hotel guests, but all of Tequila.

Project description

The main intention of the project is to create a building around different plazas of different scales that can be perceived differently, generating a path though distinctive corridors that are designed to produce a variety of spacial sensations.
We took inspiration from the monumental prehispanic scales to create plazas with an important scale that are the main focus and main quality of the project.
Each plaza has a specific function and meaning: Plaza del Agua (Water Plaza) is private, Plaza del Fuego (Fire Plaza) is semi public, and Plaza de la Tierra (Earth Plaza) is public.
The paths that function as transitions between plazas, cross the land from end to end generating two access points: one is from the route and the other is from the train tracks. This makes the perception of the building different depending from where one enters.

Technical information

Materials used are: rammed earth, glass and concrete.
Inside of the building there is a contrast between the service rooms (kitchens, bathrooms, etc.) and public rooms: the public rooms were designed to have an abundance of light, visuals, and good ventilation and that is why they are equipped with extensive windows. While the service rooms are in a way hidden away, they look like plain rammed earth walls from the outside and the ventilation and light are solved by zenithal opening.