Xiqué, Puerto Escondido – Brisas de Zacatela
Sculptural Design on Oaxaca’s Surf Coast
Type: boutique hotel, design hotel, architectural hotel, eco hotel, lifestyle retreat
Style: tropical modernism, organic minimalism, sculptural Mexican design, eco-brutalism
Vibe: serene, earthy, design-driven, coastal calm, soulful, environmentally conscious
Where Bold Form Meets Coastal Calm
On the edge of Mexico’s Pacific coast, Xiqué rises from the landscape like a sculpted extension of Oaxaca itself. More than a boutique hotel, it feels like an architectural meditation on climate, material, and place. Designed by locally based Estudio Carroll, the eight-room retreat embraces the raw beauty of Puerto Escondido through soft geometry, passive cooling, and an earthy palette that mirrors the surrounding sand, clay, and fading desert light.
The result is striking yet deeply calming — a space where architecture does not dominate nature, but quietly collaborates with it.
Architecture Rooted in Environment
Wrapped in pink chukum, a natural stucco made from tree resin and bark, Xiqué’s exterior glows softly beneath the Pacific sun. Chosen for both aesthetic and environmental reasons, the material naturally reduces heat absorption while offering water resistance and passive cooling throughout the property.
The building itself was conceived as a living system. Open west-facing corridors allow air to circulate freely, while grilles and shaded openings encourage natural ventilation. At the center, the sculptural staircase functions as a thermal chimney, drawing hot air upward and out of the structure.
Curved forms, arched openings, and softened concrete volumes create an architectural language that feels simultaneously contemporary and ancient — minimalist in expression, but organic in spirit.
Interiors of Warmth and Texture
Inside, Xiqué trades excess for tactility. Earthy pinks and muted beige tones continue throughout the interiors, layered with clay finishes, palm wood, and legally harvested macuil wood crafted into doors, railings, and lattices. Handwoven textures and natural materials soften the geometry, grounding the hotel firmly within its Oaxacan context.
Guest rooms are designed as quiet sanctuaries. Muted palettes frame views of jungle, sky, and ocean, while terraces and open-air spaces blur the line between indoors and outdoors. The atmosphere feels intentionally slow — restorative rather than performative.
Sustainability Beyond Aesthetics
What truly distinguishes Xiqué is the depth of its ecological thinking. In response to Puerto Escondido’s limited sewage infrastructure, the hotel developed an artificial wetland system — one of only around 160 operational systems of its kind in Mexico.
Designed as a walkable garden, the wetland naturally purifies wastewater generated onsite, supporting biodiversity and reducing the hotel’s ecological footprint. Combined with a pretreatment septic system, it transforms sustainability from background philosophy into visible architecture.
Rather than simply minimizing impact, Xiqué actively engages with the environmental realities of its setting.
Spaces Framed by Ocean and Sky
The ground-floor restaurant continues the hotel’s natural material palette, opening through large arched windows onto an outdoor patio shaded by soft coastal light. Above, a rooftop terrace and infinity pool overlook the Pacific, creating a cinematic horizon where sea, sky, and architecture dissolve into one another.
Throughout the property, spaces encourage both connection and contemplation. Lounges, terraces, and open corridors flow naturally with the climate, inviting guests to move slowly, linger longer, and settle into the rhythm of the coast.
DNA Hotels Verdict
Xiqué is Puerto Escondido distilled into architecture: sculptural, ecological, and deeply grounded in place. By combining tropical modernism with passive environmental design and Oaxacan craftsmanship, it creates a retreat that feels both bold and restorative.
For travelers drawn to hotels where sustainability, architecture, and atmosphere exist in genuine harmony, Xiqué stands as one of the Mexican Pacific’s most compelling new design stays.
