When it opens in downtown Denver this spring, the 265-key Populus, designed by Chicago’s Studio Gang with interiors by Fowler + Fowler Architecture and Wildman Chalmers Design, will aim to be the country’s first carbon-positive hotel. Inspired by Colorado’s native Aspen tree, the building will employ recycled materials, forgo parking, and plant some 5,000 acres of forest to offset gases. It’s a significant addition that responds to soaring consumer demand for sustainable-driven properties.
Urban Villages, the developer behind Populus, plans to keep the momentum going with the summer arrival of the carbon-positive 120-room Hotel Westland in Seattle. Part of RailSpur, the city’s new micro-district comprising historic warehouses, it will be operated by Aparium Hotel Group and designed by Chicago studio Curioso. “The entry and lobby are filled with natural vegetation, inviting guests off the pavement and into the lush respite of the hotel,” says Daniel Pierce, Curioso design principal and cofounder. “Incorporating this concept of biophilic design not only celebrates the local environment but positively impacts each guest with the emotional and psychological benefits that come with adding greenery to a space.”
The palette brings softness, too, adds studio design leader Carlos Herrera. “The design displays a progressive arc of color that connects to different natural features of the Pacific Northwest—from the Olympic Mountains to the Northern Cascades and Puget Sound. In this way, guests are subtly guided through the natural landscape as they move from space to space.” Dating back to 1907, the brick and timber building “is a testament to the craftsmanship of the hands that built it,” says project design lead Elizabeth Hutchinson. “Our work is to reinvigorate, not rub out, the soul of the structure.”
The central staircase, as seen in a rendering, is a defining feature of the forthcoming Hotel Westland in Seattle
As the climate becomes more tropical, eco-conscious practices will be critical to envisioning the next generation of the built environment, which contributes 42 percent of global carbon emissions annually, according to nonprofit organization Architecture 2030. In Anguilla, for example, the 76-room Zemi Beach House, part of LXR Hotels & Resorts, unveiled the Zemi Solar Farm that allows the hotel to run on 100 percent solar energy during the day, the first on the island to do so.
Just outside of Medellín, Colombia, the 18-room Cannúa lodge from Caimo Collection and designed by Lucas Henquin and Federico Cairoli is the first hotel in the world to be constructed from sun-dried, compressed earth bricks made onsite. This durable material is buoyed by guadua, an equally hardy native bamboo species, and the building protectively wraps around the entry’s chachafruto trees, attracting animals and birds that “function in harmony with our environment,” says Cannúa cofounder Brian Schon. “The entire project was designed based on permaculture principles. We asked ourselves, how do we harness our renewable resources? We then designed all structures using Fibonacci’s sequence, to avoid interventions into the mountainside more easily and work with the contours of the earth.”
Tucked in a lush mountainous setting, Colombia’s Cannúa is the first hotel built with compressed earth bricks
Close to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, the 13-room Hotelito is a newcomer to the art, adventure, and nature-fueled MUSA development launched by local and Mexico City-based designer Andrés Saavedra and Canadian entrepreneur Tara Medina. Embracing bioclimatic architecture and materials like wood, brick, stone, and palm leaves sourced within a 62-mile radius, Hotelito, explains Saavedra, whose eponymous studio designed the property, has an intentionally small footprint so that initiatives like regenerative agriculture, water capture, and green roofs are possible. “We have several spaces throughout to encourage moments of reflection,” he adds. “It’s a rare sight [to see] the ocean, mountains, lagoon, salt flats, jungle, and mangroves in a single postcard.”
Stunning vistas surround the indoor-outdoor Hotelito at Mexico’s MUSA development
Nature-inspired interiors at Populus feature exposed concrete and sinuous lines
This article originally appeared in HD’s December 2023 issue.
