Isay Weinfeld

Las Piedras Fasano is a hospitality complex in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It combines private homes, hotel bungalows and other amenities – spa, equestrian center, golf and polo fields and a 3-km beach stretch on the riverside of Arroyo Maldonado -, spreading across vast 480 hectares dominated by a dramatic and dazzling landscape: arid, rocky, with sparse low vegetation.
The scenery inspired the previous owner to erect, with the rocks found in the area, his home and studio. Upon our arrival to the first land reconnaissance visit, we had no doubt those buildings – rustic and of unique workmanship – should be preserved.
The detailed study of the program/client brief led us to resort to scattering the units making up the complex, conceived and distributed as isolated modules that “landed naturally” on the terrain, such as the rocks themselves – a solution intended at preventing the erection of massive buildings or volumes that might excessively interfere with the landscape.
The spa came out as a single-story concrete rectangular volume, where rooms are placed in the perimeter leaving an open indoor garden in the centre of the building, around which all circulations evolve. Serenity is to feel all around, through the choice of materials and filtered light that comes in through the windows open in the external concrete walls and skylights in the halls and rooms. The spa features treatments rooms, dry and wet sauna, a swimming pool and relaxation room, besides a private suite.