Amares began with a beach. Playa El Estillero, near El Limón on the Samaná Peninsula, is one of the few stretches of the Dominican Caribbean still free from mass tourism, with white sand, the Atlantic and coconut palms climbing the hills. The question was how to build a hotel of 36 villas there without erasing what made the place special.

The project began by observing the site. The curves of the sea, the sand and the vegetation became the lines of the masterplan and the buildings. Instead of a single block on the beachfront, the villas were scattered among patches of forest that were preserved, leaving more than 5,000 m² of open, planted ground between them. Cars would stay at the entrance, and the site would be crossed on foot.

The same idea guided the choice of materials: build with what the place offers. Dry-stone walls were raised with local stone by local hands. They support timber pergolas covered with woven cane. Façades were trowelled in a natural mortar the colour of the sand. Eucalyptus screens, ceramic lattices, natural timber and rattan complete a warm, tactile palette that will age with the landscape.

Amares was also designed to take care of its own resources. It has its own recycling plant, a water treatment plant and rainwater harvesting, and it runs on solar energy. Shade and cross-ventilation do much of the cooling.

A nursery created on site grows the native plants for this first phase and for those to come.

The result is a place where luxury means silence, nature and an architecture that knows when to step back.