A Chill Hotel in Every Way But One

This article is part of our Design special section about making the environment a creative partner in the design of beautiful homes.

When representatives of Grupo Habita asked the architect Alberto Kalach to design an earth-friendly, energy-efficient hotel along the jungle coast of Oaxaca, he knew he would need a few things in return.

The luxury hotel chain, he said, would have to understand that its new outpost needed to be small-scale and low-rise to minimize the destruction of natural vegetation and to reduce the environmental havoc large construction projects can wreak on local lands and water supplies. Mr. Kalach’s sensitive concept for what is now called Hotel Terrestre allowed for just 14 rooms, limiting the property’s profit potential.

Future guests would have to sacrifice, as well, because the hotel had to be entirely solar-powered to avoid the use of fossil fuels. Hotel Terrestre’s rooms have hot water and Wi-Fi, but they run on an energy source limited by the weather, leaving out of the picture hospitality staples like in-room hair dryers and even air-conditioning, not a small ask — at $350 a night — in a location where temperatures can hit the high 80s all year long.

That the architect got his demands is not so surprising. Mr. Kalach is a superstar designer in Mexico, the creative force behind numerous landmark projects, including the acclaimed Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City. His name is a brand.

But his firm is also known for delivering on a bargain, in this case creating a tranquil, seaside oasis that syncs up with the sun and sand around it and that maximizes views of the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains on the other.

He may have omitted the AC but he gave each of the rooms its own private swimming pool for quick cool-downs. The beach, he noted, is just a few hundred feet away.

“And we orientated the rooms to catch the winds; the breeze coming from the ocean during the day, and the cool air coming from the mountains during the night,” he said. “Air-conditioning represents, like, 8 percent of the contamination of the planet.”

Hotel Terrestre’s goal is to deliver simple pleasures through a low-impact, high-design filter, according to Moisés Micha, a co-founder of Grupo Habita, which operates 15 design-forward hotels in Mexico. “The idea is to work hand-in-hand with nature,” he said.

To that end, the hotel serves as a Mexican beach resort, but with an emphasis on relaxation and wellness…