Tucuman, Argentina | Graduate school | Advisor: Marcel Erminy

    The Las Americas Virtual Design Studio (LAVDS) is a collaborative teaching/learning environment that virtually brings together a number of academic design studios geographically distributed through out the US, Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico and Peru. The studio project was authored by the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán in Argentina. The objective was to design a eco-tourism hotel outside of the rural deciduous mountain settlement of Amaicha Del Valle, Tucuman. 

Given free range to choose our site in a space encompassing more then 10,000 km of uninterrupted deciduous landscape, the design intent of my proposal was to create a discrete architectural retreat for those looking for solitude. 

I took immediate inspiration from Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale (‘spatial concept’), punching holes in the picture plane and slicing through his canvases in order to expose the dimensional space beneath. The mass of the architectural retreat is embed into the landscape and its tectonic palette of reflective glass, and rose tinted concrete, allow it to appear as a subtle transgression to all outsiders looking in. From the inside looking out the architecture provides framed horizontal views of the surrounding  uninterrupted topography. The mass is punctured with circular light-wells to highlight the infinite depth of the sky  from within the  mountain.

Guest circulate through several avenues including a vertical elevator that connects all 5 levels and several stair paths. The rooms were designed to create the sensation of isolation from other visitors and warmth & comfort  thought the choice of a light material palette with textural versatility. The hotel is accented with textiles and furnishings regionally crafted from the same components found in the exterior landscape.