Alexa Saad

Tourism is an important part of Mexico’s economy and it is important to start making it a greener business that helps the planet instead of damaging the beautiful landscapes where hotels are located. I’ve lived in Cancun, a big touristic location, my entire life and I’ve seen the damage that construction has made to the environment of my home. I decided to focus on sustainable architecture and the question “How can you build something that is as easily built as it is destroyed?”. After visiting different hotels in Cancun and in Tulum, such as Hotel Xcaret Mexico and Azulik, I realized that there was not a single hotel that was actually sustainable in all its fields. Located in Punta Soliman, I created a small hotel concept that could possibly be used in the future, that harms the environment as little as possible. My project focuses on creating a sustainable hotel based on various different sustainable practices that reduce the footprint to its minimum using reused containers as rooms, and other green systems such as compostable toilets and photovoltaic solar panels. Containers that have been transformed to fit the environment in which they would be located are placed on top of “mojoneras” that help to hold up each container without damaging the land beneath. Each container is painted a very specific green color that fits with the plants of that area and has specific thermal and insulated specifications that help the airflow within the container and avoid excessive heat. The whole concept is created from the idea of building something that could be as easily built as it is destroyed, these containers would only need to be pulled from their standings when needed to, without damaging any of the environment that surrounds it.