Mar Adentro Hotel
Miguel Ángel Aragonés

On a Mexican desert peninsula where every droplet of water is dear, architect Miguel Ángel Aragonés put Mar Adentro Hotel’s focus on the element that makes up the majority of us all—not to mention the ocean beyond. The San José del Cabo property’s white, clean-lined towers are a bit like the 1929 Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van der Rohe, appearing to float on reflecting pools of purified seawater, and breaking the local mold for what they are not: not colorful, not loud, not all-inclusive. Though rooms are airy and artful, guests find themselves leaving them for Nido, an onsite restaurant cocooned within a latticework twig shell. As juror Dana Cowin notes, in a cliché rooted in reality: “It takes your breath away.” maradentrocabos.com

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