La Purificadora Hotel / LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA

May 2009

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Featured ,Hotels and Restaurants ,Selected , LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA, Mexico, Stone, Terrace

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Undine Pröhl

Architects: LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA
Location: Puebla, México
Client: Plus Arrendamientos
Associate Architect: Serrano Monjaraz Arquitectos
Interiors: LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA, SerranoMonjaraz Arquitectos
Structure: García Jarque Ingenieros, SC.
Electrical & Services Consultant: Proyectos de Ingeniería Eléctrica y Sistemas Automatizados S.A. de CV.
Landscape Architects: Espacios Verdes
Contractor: Grupo Huitzilin SA de CV
Kitchen Consultant: DIPREC
Lighting Consultant: Luz y Forma
Graphic Design: CENTRO
Art: Laureana Toledo
Constructed Area: 3000 sqm
Exteriors Area: 711 sqm
Site Area: 1178 sqm
Project year: 2007
Photographs: Undine Pröhl

Located in the city of Puebla and belonging to the Master Plan “Paseo San Francisco”, the Boutique Hotel has colonial heritage and is registered as historical patrimony, which must be respected and included as part of the new design project. The building used to be an ice factory where the water was bottled and purified.

Taking this into consideration, the Boutique hotel also called “Hotel La Purificadora” was designed with the following facilities: 26 guestrooms, reception-shop, restaurant-bar, kitchen, ballrooms for events, patio with a 4-floor-height, meeting rooms, offices, and cave.

The amenities include a pool, terrace for events, gym, jacuzzi, massage and a steam room.

The project consists of a large lateral patio which is surrounded by a L-shape building in each level: on the ground floor, working as a living room, it is a prolongation of the height of the restaurant-bar and the reception-shop; in 2nd and 3rd floor, it is an empty space that separate the circulations from the rooms and on the 4th floor limiting the amenities zone. The height of the patio is partially covered by a rooftop.
The facades have the same treatment as the old building, extending plaster and stone along all its height. Main materials used are: stone (from the original construction) and old wood that contrast with the contemporary materials such as glass and steel incorporated in to the new design, as well as specially designed tiles for the bedrooms floors and onyx in the restrooms.

During the intense remodeling process, the archeologist found many glass pieces that belonged to the original building and were incorporated as La Purificadora’s graphic design.

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: Undine Pröhl

: ground floor plan

: first floor plan

: second floor plan

: third floor plan

: east elevation

: north elevation

: west elevation

: south elevation

: section 01

: section 02

: section 03

: section 04

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "La Purificadora Hotel / LEGORRETA + LEGORRETA" 15 May 2009. ArchDaily. Accessed 09 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/22243>

Comments (8)
Tweets (11)
Links to this entry (7)

o+c says:

excellent! I just booked a stay here yesterday in fact!

# May 15, 2009 at 13:20

dustin says:

You will not regret it, whenever I am in Puebla i visit it.

# May 15, 2009 at 13:59

HSXK says:

I hope I will have money to go there.

# May 16, 2009 at 06:13

Terry Glenn Phipps says:

Is there some valid reason to censor my commentary????

# May 16, 2009 at 07:20

This is such a fascinating project to see because it is just enough outside of the established Legoretta canon that the hand of the master is legible alongside the influence of the second generation.
It is extremely tempting to think that the embrace of self-consciously luxurious features such as onyx bathrooms, transparent closets, and glass swimming pools represent a dilution of the clarity of Arch. Legoretta’s purity and spartan character. Even when his residences have been enormous, 2000 sq. meters or more, they have historically retained their informality in tension with monumental scale.
Here too there is divine poetry. The staircase is simply magical with its suspended spatial confabulator/lantern (I don’t know what else to call it?). Too the compressed space of the dining hall pushing the eye out to the view is breathtaking.
Everyone has had to make concessions to the distorted expectations of travelers the age of Balazs, Starck, and their imitators. Indeed the general fame of the architect and the wealth of the clientele bring new expectations and a different dialectic.
In this I see a parallel to the late work of Neutra (1960-1970) when the master, by then copied by a new generation of architects who by some measure represented competition, began to explore new technologies and materials within an undiminished (or perhaps even increased) capacity to paint lyrical and elegiac space. Somehow Neutra’s late projects suffered from finicky and overly precious new materials with which a steady hand was unfamiliar. However, those spaces simultaneously gained something intangible from an older man’s renewed confidence to experiment.
The Legoretta houses I have personally experienced (Bilger and Montalban) lead me to believe that this architecture benefits from the juxtaposition of grandeur and simplicity and suffers from the kind of luxurious detailing shown here. Indeed in the Bilger and Montalban projects the architecture becomes a deceptively simple stage for the clients who are absolutely larger than life. Here the story is reversed for clients who are guests of a hotel, by definition transient and momentarily rootless – perhaps needing more coddling and ostentation.
Terry Glenn Phipps

Layev says:

Puebla is such a beautiful city! I’m planning to visit again this year, ill make sure to check out this hotel, looks quite unique!

# May 16, 2009 at 13:03

francis says:

So … this is how the well-heeled get their fix. It is a stage for the “transient and rootless” (read Terry’s commentary): where it lacks intimacy; it provides theatre. You get to hangout over a “camp fire”, scale the “Aztec steps”, swim in the “fish-tank” … exactly how the toffs go camping, yah? I fail to see Terry’s comment on “the compressed space of the dining hall pushing the eye out to the view” is breathtaking, but it is definitely stark (punt intended) throughout. In Mexico, the masterful Barragan’s work touches every designer/architect, and I can see the office of Legoretta + Legoretta is no exception.
This project seems to be a landscaping exercise, and theatre is at the heart of it. It is successful, well laid out and I am sold just by the photo of the entrance’s dilapidated walls with the iconic Che peeking out. Now, I’ll just have to fiddle my expenses and book myself a few nights there! However, I do prefer the COMO group hotels, if that is all we are talking about.

# May 16, 2009 at 16:43

zahra says: