Nature abhors a vacuum, but it loves a picture window. These self-contained, geometric accommodations get you right up against the wilderness, putting the view above all else.
Lately we’ve noticed a profusion of geometric shapes in the world of hotel design — squares, rectangles, rhombi, and triangles — all arranged into freestanding cabins, pods, and villas. Set in some of the planet’s most otherworldly landscapes, these straight-lined statements are designed to stand out against a rural profile and, more often than not, reflect it back from large sheets of glass.
The picture window is the key that unlocks the popularity of the trend, and the thread that ties these hotels together. It’s the portal through which guests can get within a fingernail’s width of nature, safe from its impetuousness, surrounded by its magnificence. In a traditional hotel, an amazing view feels somewhat shared. In a detached box, it’s all yours.
AKA Patagonia
Puerto Natales, Chile
A setting as dramatic as Patagonia is an architect’s dream, and for this site just outside of Puerto Natales, Pablo Larroulet designed prefab cabins made of hardy local lenga wood, arranged in a pattern that feels organic yet organized, complementing the landscape without quite disappearing into it.
Arctic TreeHouse Hotel
Rovaniemi, Finland
Deep in Finnish Lapland, the Arctic TreeHouse Hotel is a high-luxury, high-design experience, each “glasshouse” cabin with its own private sauna, each suite with a picture window at the foot of the bed offering an immersive view of the forest.
Les Échasses
Saubion, France
There are other surf hotels in the countryside around Hossegor, on the Atlantic coast of France’s South-West, but none quite like Relais du Silence Les Échasses, whose distinctive modernist lodges are made from untreated, chemical-free wood, and stand on stilts above the glassy water of a small lake.
Pepe Vieira Hotel
Poio, Spain
Pepe Vieira’s setting is a relatively secluded one, surrounded by forest in Galicia’s coastal countryside. Its rooms make much of this immersion in nature — each one is a freestanding modern cube with a vast picture window, drawing the eye from the sober minimalist-luxe interiors to the tranquil scenes outside.
48° Nord
Breitenbach, France
A Nordic-style landscape hotel, 48° Nord explores the connections between the Alsatian and Scandinavian cultures. Tall, narrow, minimalist cabins in bare wood elevate guests above the treetops of a protected site, for far-ranging views of the countryside; inside is Nordic modernism at its warmest and most organic.
Juvet Landscape Hotel
Valldal, Norway
Juvet has appeared on screen in both Ex Machina and Succession — and for good reason. From the outside, its glass-and-wood cubes are stunning enough, but it’s from the inside that you begin to appreciate what it is to be a “landscape hotel” — with one or two walls made of full-length glass, each cabin takes in a truly vast forest panorama.
Awasi Patagonia
Torres del Paine, Chile
Awasi’s twelve villas are humble, almost minimal, when viewed from the outside, and from the inside they’re simply extraordinary, a 50/50 blend of rustic charm and modern gloss, with just the right amount of luxury. And while the design is thoughtful, the eye is always drawn outwards; what interior designer would dream of trying to compete with the natural view?
Aire de Bardenas
Tudela, Spain
These prefab pods at Aire de Bardenas are clever, functional, modern spaces designed around the windows, which provide otherworldly views of the wheat fields and the wind-scoured rocks, and which are possibly the most comfortable spaces in the rooms, complete with mini-mattresses and lounge pillows.
Consolación
Monroyo, Spain
Built from the bones of an old hermitage, the main building at Consolación contains a couple of guest rooms and the bulk of the public spaces. But what’s most striking is the modern architecture of the outlying guest rooms, each one a wooden cube perched at the edge of the bluff, with one glass wall open to the view.
Casa de la Flora
Khao Lak, Thailand
At first glance, the 36 villas appear oddly bunker-like for a an eco-tourist retreat. But there’s a logic to every aspect of Casa de la Flora’s design, and the villa layout is no exception. By taking advantage of the natural slope of the beach, each beachfront villa is graced with an uninterrupted view of the sand and surf.
Eastwind Hotel – Oliverea Valley
Big Indian, NY, USA
Eastwind’s 27 rooms are as stylish as anything in rural New York State, combining rustic unpretentiousness and minimalist Nordic simplicity. The rooms in the lodge are furnished with vintage mid-century pieces, and the trademark triangular cabins range from tent-sized all the way up to 400-square-foot suites, the latter of which come with en-suite bathrooms.
Our Habitas San Miguel
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
The accommodations at Our Habitas San Miguel are built for outdoor immersion: each one is a freestanding casita that opens onto a view of the countryside right at the foot of the bed. The pod-like casitas mix contemporary elements like floor-to-ceiling windows and modern furniture with traditional crafts and décor.
Manshausen
Nordskot, Norway
Manshausen Island was once a traders’ outpost, and the hotel’s 1880s-vintage main house is a relic of this era. But the sea cabins are quite a bit newer. These pared-down larchwood-and-glass structures perch right at the water’s edge, affording vertiginous views through full-length windows from living rooms furnished with mid-century reproduction furniture.
Vivood Landscape Hotel & Spa
Benimantell, Spain
About an hour from Alicante, on the slopes of Guadalest Valley, stand a collection of ultra-modern glass-walled boxes, creating maximal contrast between the high-design interiors and the starkly beautiful landscapes outside. The design of Vivood never fights against the hospitality, and function is never compromised in the name of form.
Mark Fedeli is the hotel marketing and editorial director for Tablet and Michelin Guide. He’s been with Tablet since 2006, and he thinks you should subscribe to our newsletter.