Palafito del Mar Hotel

Palafito del Mar Hotel is a fresh look design project about original way of living in Chiloé, on stilts. Through their patios and balconies overlooking the sea, linked by a central corridor that feeds light, and ends in a large room, like a public square and a meeting place around the fire. From there the view of the austral Canals that gave meaning to construction on stilts.

Pedro Montt is a traditional neighborhood on stilts in Castro, in the island of Chiloe. Here there are no regulations, only internal codes of a community that has existed for years on the waterfront, over the sea, showcasing a way of living and culture.
Private initiatives allow many of the buildings currently neglected or deteriorated, to be reused, recovered or reinvented, for the traditional neighborhood, the hostels, and travelers to coexist. The neighborhood was always viewed as marginal and poor, but the respect from people external to their environment has stimulated the community to care for their shared space and housing.
The commission of the project was to design a boutique hotel as an experience to live Chiloé, where all the bedrooms would overlook the Castro estuary, and where the tides were always present in every corner of the project.
Thus arises the idea of making a stilt landscape out of different stilts, laid out around the seaside life in a collage composition that yields different colors, shapes, and textures, specific to their environment.
A central circulation enhanced by a linear skylight leads into the different rooms that are arranged linearly, successively crossing the various “thresholds of the sea,” which is where one observes the tide from inside the stilts. It finally concludes in a living room, by the fire, which welcomes guests for the encounter of Chiloe culture.