Author Studio Jakob Sellaoui
Location Popoyo, Nicaragua
Client Meson Nadi
Surface 720 sqm
Photography Courtesy of Studio Jakob Sellaoui
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How does one make a hotel that doesn't feel like a hotel? Meson Nadi Boutique is a hotel located in Popoyo, Nicaragua, designed by Studio Jakob Sellaoui.
Popoyo is a small beach town in the Tola municipality of the Rivas Department of Nicaragua, a popular surf attraction in the area.
Based in Austria, Jakob has been working on residential, cultural and research projects in Austria, Japan, Nicaragua, and the USA.
The project starts with unique site conditions: a beachfront lot on a thinly populated south-western pacific coast of Nicaragua.
Instead of stacking floors with anonymous cells, Sellaoui wanted the guest rooms to become small houses. The entire programme is divided into differently-scaled buildings..
Within this arrangement, the unbuilt in-between space is equally important as the buildings themselves.
The biggest fragment, which faces the street, contains the restaurant and reception area, while the rooms frame the main outdoor space.
Tall sloped roofs cover the buildings visually connect the different buildings, and offer shelter from the harsh coastal climate of south-western Nicaragua.
The guest rooms enclose an open outdoor space filled with flowers, cacti and palm trees, like a village surrounding a garden.
By utilising the knowledge and limited material resources available, familiar parts are brought together in an unfamiliar way.
‘Building with the knowledge and equipment that is available. Nothing more and nothing less.’
Author Studio Jakob Sellaoui
Location Popoyo, Nicaragua
Client Meson Nadi
Surface 720 sqm
Photography Courtesy of Studio Jakob Sellaoui