Built into the reserve, not placed on the beach. That's the short version of our architecture, and most of what follows is the long one.
Who designed us
Our ten suites and Villa Pentágonos were imagined by two Mexican architects, Alberto Kalach and Ignacio Urquiza. Villa Pentágonos is Kalach's: a clifftop villa he designed as a tribute to the cliffs and the Pacific horizon it faces. The suites sit in three houses further into the reserve, Casa Chicatana, Casa Cuachalalá and Casa Guayacán.
The site is El Torón Reserve, a protected stretch of the Oaxaca coast where we occupy 30 hectares of dry forest, rock and hillside on Camino Mermejita. The buildings work around that terrain rather than flattening it. You'll feel it on your first walk to dinner: stone paths, steps, and a building appearing only when you're almost at its door.
Villa Pentágonos
Villa Pentágonos is the building most people come to see, and it's the one we'd point an architect friend to first. From above you read it as a set of pentagonal roofs and a hexagonal plunge pool on the forested cliff. From across the hillside it's a cluster of glass pavilions sitting in the dry tropical forest.
Inside, it's one bedroom with a king bed, and it sleeps two. Folding wooden shutters open the bedroom and the bathroom straight onto the sea, and there's an outdoor shower. Outside, a covered lounge terrace with a built-in sofa looks over the private infinity pool to the Pacific. There's only one, so it books early.
The three houses
The suites are grouped in houses, and each house can be reserved whole.
| House | Suites | What the architecture gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Casa Chicatana | Master Suite Chicatana, Persianas, Chukum, El Árbol | The sea-facing house. Persianas opens to the ocean through shutters; the Master Suite has ocean views and a TV room with sofa bed |
| Casa Cuachalalá | Selva, Ceiba, Olas, Mar Azul | Garden house with private terraces; Ceiba's has a swing, Olas catches partial ocean views |
| Casa Guayacán | Guayacán, Copal | The hill side of the reserve. Guayacán's terrace has a hammock among the dry-forest branches |
If the sea is the reason you're coming, ask for Casa Chicatana. If you came for the forest, Casa Guayacán.
How the buildings handle the heat
The buildings are designed to breathe: they emphasise cross ventilation and natural materials, so shutters and openings do a lot of the cooling. We don't leave it to the breeze alone, though. Every suite has 24-hour air conditioning, many have a ceiling fan as well, and Villa Pentágonos has both.
El Torón changes with the season, green to gold. The rainy months turn the forest around the houses green; later in the year it dries to gold, and the buildings read differently against it. If you're coming for photographs, that's worth planning around.
Where the architecture has been published
We're on record in the architecture and design press, not only the travel pages. Architectural Record, Wallpaper* and Divisare have all featured us, as did Hospitality Interiors in March 2025 and Milk Decoration in May 2025. On the travel side, there's the Financial Times (March 2025), Travel + Leisure (2025 and April 2026) and Mr & Mrs Smith. We're also a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
What the design asks of you
A building cut into a hillside has terms, and we'd rather you know them first.
- Steps everywhere: for structural reasons there are no elevators, and every space is reached by steps and stone pathways.
- No drones: drones and other unmanned aircraft are prohibited within the property unless they're part of an authorised event. The aerial photographs on this page are ours.
- Shared with the reserve: El Torón is a protected natural area, and wildlife is part of it. Expect company on the paths.
- Adults only: this is adults-only, from eighteen up.
We're about 50 minutes from Huatulco airport and an hour from Puerto Escondido. Our concierge arranges private transfers from both.