ARCHITECTURE: Canopy Retreat

Canopy Retreat

Client Private

Location San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Black gravel underfoot, guests part the lush vegetation of San Juan del Sur to arrive beneath the iconic roof of the Canopy Retreat’s main building. Organized along an open plan of ‘boulders,’ the clubhouse flexibly separates restaurant, mediation and treatment areas. Complemented by a minimal material palette that accentuates the colors and sounds of the surrounding forest. Following a quick check-in, visitors proceed down a few steps to the pool and juice bar.

Further off, wooden walkways wind through the foliage to private cabanas. Borrowing its structure from surrounding trees, a cabana perches over the landscape, granting breathtaking ocean views. Its trunk-like base conceals an exterior shower and supports a latticework of beams that stretch the fabric roof. Like a tent, the cabana’s skin can be completely closed, set to provide insect netting at night, or open to the outside and private plunge pool. Reclining on built-in furniture amidst the smell of flowers and ocean, visitors are immediately at ease.