An ecolodge and a collection of private ecovillas together within a single territory. We conceived it as a Journey of Grounding a path that reconnects those who inhabit it with their own essence through the landscape, understanding the site not as a place to intervene upon, but as a set of interconnected ecosystems that share a common core and reveal themselves gradually as one moves through it.
Before any structure was placed, the plan began with reading the land itself: slope analysis, sun path, prevailing winds, and water run-off determined where each program could sit without disrupting the site’s natural drainage or canopy. Three view corridors ocean, valley, and jungle became the threads that organize the plan, so that every path through Essentia is also a path through a different face of the landscape.
The land holds exceptional biodiversity: nearly 40 bird species among them the magpie jay, the turquoise-browed motmot, and the collared forest-falcon mammals including howler and white-faced capuchin monkeys and coatis, and native trees such as mahogany, wild cashew, and pink trumpet tree. Living within that richness demands an architecture that adapts to it, not the other way around.