Dezeen Magazine

Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores

Ian Pablo Amores creates pink hotel with courtyard garden in San Miguel de Allende

Mexican architect Ian Pablo Amores has completed a boutique hotel in San Miguel de Allende with a pink facade and a landscaped garden lounge.

The Quinta Amores hotel is located in the Los Frailes neighbourhood of San Miguel de Allende, a city in central Mexico that is known for its Spanish colonial architecture and cobblestone streets.

Quinta Amores
Quinta Amores sits on cobblestone streets

Five pink-hued buildings make up the resort, which was built on a rectangular lot filled with vegetation.

From the street, guests pass a gate into a reception wing, which has roof projection to provide shade and support a hammock.

Ian Pablo Amores hotel
Pink volumes sit within a verdant garden

The colour, which was prepared specifically for the hotel, was mixed on-site and chosen for its relationship to the colonial buildings of San Miguel de Allende.

"In the state of Guanajuato, you can see these colors (reds, orange, pink, etc) in almost every colonial building," Ian Pablo Amores told Dezeen.

Warm wooden furniture
Warm wooden furniture makes up Quinta Amores' interiors

"I try to relate the project with the context of San Miguel de Allende. I made around 15 samples of colour and I saw that this type of pink was very special with the natural light of the site," the architect added.

Conversation pit
Ian Pablo Amores added a sunken conversation pit to the courtyard

A lush courtyard has landscaped paths and a sunken conversation pit.

"The set is built around a spacious amenity that functions as a meeting point between families," said the architect, describing the courtyard as "a space that conveys a sense of belonging that accompanies the guest in his voyage through San Miguel de Allende."

Four suites make up the small hotel. Two single-storey rooms are at the front of the property, with another pair of two-storey volumes at the back that can accommodate families.

Each of the guest rooms has a private exterior space that is separated from the communal garden by a stone wall. These smaller courtyards are the main access to the guest rooms, and some of them include a sculptural stone bathtub.

Stone bathtub
Sculptural stone bathtubs feature in some of the smaller courtyards

The buildings' exterior surfaces are all the same pink colour, which provides some contrast to the courtyard's greenery and natural stone floors. The finish is a cementitious material similar to stucco.

Inside, the architects used a palette of warm wooden furniture, red tile floors, and simple white walls.

Bedroom by Ian Pablo Amores
Red floor tiles were placed in some of the bedrooms

Ian Pablo Amores started his eponymous architecture practice in 2021 called Estudio Ian Pablo Amores and nicknamed Estudio IPA. The boutique hotel counts as one of his first individual projects.

Mexico has recently seen the construction of several smaller, design-forward hotels. Other examples include a hotel in Querétaro that was built within a neocolonial villa that belonged to a local philanthropist and the El Perdido hotel in Baja California Sur, which was made of rammed-earth walls covered in thatched roofs.

The photography is by César Béjar.

More images and plans

Single storey floor plan
Single story floor plan
Two storey floor plan
Two storey floor plan
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores
Ian Pablo Amores Quinta Amores