Hotel Tepelmeme

Hotel Tepelmeme is a hospitality project conceived for a community with a strong cultural tradition in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, near the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve. The hotel is intended to serve both people visiting relatives in the town and travelers using Tepelmeme as a base for exploring the reserve and taking part in outdoor activities.

The property occupies a strategic location within the town, facing the main square and its kiosk and adjacent to the river. This condition creates two street-facing façades and a third frontage oriented toward the river, allowing the project to engage simultaneously with the town center, pedestrian activity, and the natural landscape.

The development is organized around a central courtyard that connects the different components of the program and functions as a space for transition and social interaction. Retail spaces, a restaurant, a café, and parking are located on the ground floor. The hotel’s 12 guest rooms occupy the second level, while the third floor contains a private apartment for the owner.

The shared areas and publicly accessible services were conceived as an extension of Tepelmeme’s pedestrian life. Rather than operating as an isolated hospitality complex, the ground floor extends the activity of the main square into the project and encourages interaction among guests, visitors, and members of the local community.

The proposal draws on regional architectural references and building practices to establish a natural relationship with its context. The central courtyard, the direct connection with the surrounding streets, the scale of the building volumes, and the opening toward the river allow the project to respond to both the town’s social dynamics and the environmental and landscape conditions of the site.

AKURAT was responsible for the authorship and architectural design, from the initial concept through the completion of the construction documentation. The 1,900-square-meter proposal brings hospitality, retail, food service, and a private residence together within a building designed to meet the client’s program and expectations.