Hotel Salto Chico
 

explora PATAGONIA

Hotel Salto Chico

Our lodge is located right at the heart of the extraordinary Torres del Paine National Park in central Patagonia. The varied and untouched landscapes of this area led UNESCO to declare it a biosphere reserve.

Our Patagonia hotel lodge opened in 1993 on the banks of the Salto Chico waterfall. It affords an excellent view of the unique Paine Massif and two of the three impressive torres, or towers, which give the park its name.

The lodge has 49 rooms and a variety of inviting spaces. Situated on a 3-hectare (7.4-acre) site, the design borrows certain organic forms from the landscape itself, adapting to it with simple elegance. It was designed to create a dialogue with its environment, putting human beings in touch with the sublimity of their surroundings.

For travelers, the lodge provides the welcome surprise of comfort in a remote area; nonetheless, you are not isolated from nature, but placed “within” it.

 
ArchitectureArchitecture

Architecture

How can a small work of architecture coexist with a landscape as impressive as Torres del Paine?

Our response to this challenge was to construct a long building to contrast with the vertical form of Macizo del Paine. We painted the outside white to blend in with the snow and ice.

Both the perimeter of the site and the external cladding of the lodge are constructed of cement and wood beams, a combination able to withstand the Patagonian climate’s wide-ranging temperatures and strong winds.

The interior is warm and light. We created this lighting effect by combining the warm color in the veins of local lenga wood (nothofagus pumilio) with white walls in certain parts of the lodge.

You can walk around the perimeter of Hotel Salto Chico, following the "orbit" or revolving space built into the design. Thus, the interior and exterior accompany one another and enter into a dialogue at the access to the rooms. The traveler can simultaneously view both the interior of the lodge and the surrounding landscape.

Apart from the main section of the building is the swimming pool area with jacuzzis and sauna - the “Casa de Baños del Ona”, or Ona Bath House– which can be reached via sloping wooden walkways. The swimming pool and jacuzzis are at the same level as Lake Pehoé, providing a continuous view of the water. The outside of this building is painted the same emerald green color as the lake.

JOSÉ CRUZ

This architect, who has studied and worked in Chile and Spain, has created a substantial portfolio of award-winning work, including:

The Chile Pavilion at Expo '92 in Seville, Spain (1992), Hotel Salto Chico (1995), in partnership with Germán del Sol, The campus for Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (2004), Posada de Mike Rapu (2007)

His work has been published in specialist books and journals and included in exhibitions at the Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, the Sao Paulo International Architecture Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In September 2008 he received the "Spirit of Nature” wood architecture award, a prize granted each year by the Finnish association “Puu kulttuurissa” (wood in culture) since 1999.

Architecture awards for Hotel Salto Chico

10th Biennial Architecture Exhibition, Santiago, Chile, 1995. First prize in the Architecture for Travel Services category.