El Retiro Spa
EL RETIRO SPA
Mendiola Arregui
ARCHITECTS
Mendiola Arregui
LEAD ARCHITECTS
Carlos Mendiola, Andrea Arregui
ILLUSTRATIONS
Jorge Picos
CONSTRUCTION
Javier Ochoa
CARPENTRY
Jorge García
EXECUTIVE PROJECT
Ängel Orozco, Ramiro Madera
MODEL
Ángel Rodríguez
MANUFACTURERS
CANTERAS OLYMPIA, Canteras Barba, Grupo Industrial Canterero, Sukabumi stone Mexico
SAUNA
Aguas Tratadas
PHOTOGRAPHS
César Béjar
AREA
220 m²
YEAR
2025
LOCATION
Tapalpa, Mexico
CATEGORY
Spa
English description provided by the architects.
This project is born as a retreat space, conceived from introspection.
A personal and private spa in the mountains of Tapalpa, where the architecture deliberately renounces the idea of a façade: there is no gesture towards the outside, no frontal composition. The building seeks not to be seen, but to be inhabited.
Just as the architecture directs all its attention inward, the program it houses shares that same introspective condition.
It is a collection of spaces designed for pause, contemplation, and rest; a journey that invites you to slow down.
The access is emphasized as the only gesture outward. From there, the project descends and is organized into four distinct volumes.
These are connected by a cross-shaped circulation that structures the ensemble and emphasizes the transition between areas.
The journey from one space to another defines the experience. The visual endings, the play of light, and the handling of chiaroscuro shape the atmosphere of the project.
The light does not invade; it emerges. It comes from the different rooms and filters into the circulation areas, marking transitions and establishing contrasts. The dimness functions as a threshold that articulates the journey.
The project is a sensory sequence. An exercise where the absence of a façade is, in fact, a stance: to position the interior atmosphere as the main value of the project, where light, shadow, materiality, and the journey construct the experience of the space.
