Seamlessly integrated into the breathtaking Chilean Patagonian landscape, the Hotel Remota (Remote Hotel) is a unique architectural masterpiece built and operated with ecological and sustainable practices along with a deep-rooted sense of Chilean culture.

Located in the town of Puerto Natales in the Seno de Ultima Esperanza province, the 5-star eco Hotel Remota is the best place to begin a visit to the Patagonia area at the southern tip of South America. It has a privileged location by the ocean at the starting point of the amazing mountains, lakes and glaciers of the Chilean Patagonia, and all of the rooms have a view of Ultima Esperanza Bay, the Balmaceda Glacier, and the Paine Mountain Range. Hard-core adventurers and nature lovers delight in the abundance of activities in Patagonia including sailing the fjords, fishing, hiking, bicycle tours, bird watching, and horseback riding among others.

Inspired by Patagonian sheep farm buildings, architect (and professor at the Universidad de Chile) Germán del Sol designed the 72-room hotel to blend into the surrounding vistas and offer unparalleled luxury. Built to appear like a big black barn from the distance, warm yellow lights gleam from the hotel’s interior at night. The empty central courtyard or plaza introduces the vast wilderness at the core of the hotel. It is surrounded by three sides with two guest room buildings, with the main one in the back a little higher, where the common areas of the hotel are found. Low wood corridors cross the treeless courtyard of boulders, resembling the Patagonian plains. Its interior design embraces Chilean cultural heritage.

The Hotel Remota is set on 4.31 hectares; the built area encompasses 5,213 m2; and construction started in 2004 through 2006. The roofs have two areas covered in gravel and native grasses; the maximum slope of the hotel greenroof is 14.5%, and the maximum slope of the guest rooms is 7%.

“The loneliness of the vast landscape is perhaps what seduces the wanderer’s soul. Everyone can make a discovery if one sees the same old things with new eyes. Maybe, because we only get to know that which puts up some resistance, the place where it is hard to get to is that which we believe, somehow, that we deserve. Thus, perhaps, the myth of Patagonia is the myth of a remote place, where we feel that the journey has been accomplished, and we are delicately returned to what is ours.” ~ Germán del Sol

“Iconoclastic Chilean architect Germán del Sol threaded a group of severe edifices, their blackened wood-and-felt exteriors echoing the basalt strata of the Torres del Paine massif: Weight-bearing spars are vertically skewed, giant ventilation shafts protrude, windows are jagged-cut. The 72 ample-sized guest rooms, done in slate and untreated wood with vibrant sunflower-yellow accents, are in structures that zigzag with the sloping ground. A factory-sized building houses the lobby, reading rooms, and restaurant (locally caught seafood is a specialty). The impressive spa includes two ten-person saunas and an infinity pool that reflects Patagonia’s constantly changing skies,” (Condé Nast Traveler).

The Hotel Remota is located only 158 miles from Punta Arenas and 93 miles from the Torres del Paine National Park. Each room has 344 square feet and has a private bath, direct dial phone and safe; the hotel offers two meeting halls as well as a restaurant and bar. There is an additional complex with a heated indoor pool, Finnish sauna and Jacuzzi. Guests are invited to rest body and soul in their rooms, with the relaxing aroma of the lenga wood together with the light radiating from the heat reflecting windows – and the magnificent views to the fjord of Last Hope are the perfect setting for perfect comfort in the bucolic Patagonian surroundings. Over 30 excursions are offered daily, structured to cause minimum impact to the local ecosystem.

“Saving energy was an important consideration in Hotel Remota’s design. The orientation to the sun ensures passive solar energy absorption, and the yellow-shaded electric lights are of low-wattage. The bathrooms and laundry systems boast low-consumption water fittings. The spare interior is uncluttered by anything unnecessary, del Sol says. This not only conserves resources but contributes to the feeling of serenity.

“The natural grass of the Patagonian plain is left to grow wild all around Hotel Remota. This landscape also covers the roofs. In fact, the roof’s asphalt-coated concrete slabs are planted with a two-foot- (60 centimeter-) high carpet of wild grasses,” (ArchitectureWeek, 2006).

In 2006 Germán del Sol was awarded Chile’s highest accolade for an architect, the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile’s National Architecture Prize (Premio Nacional de Arquitectura 2006).