So last night I stayed in an awesome luxury dome here in Akumal, Mexico.
It's right behind me. It's called the organic dome,
but it's part of a series of four domes that make up an eco-friendly hotel here
in the middle of the jungle.
One inspiration behind this hotel was to create a less impactful vacation
alternative for those of us who would rather not stay in the resorts along
Mexico's coastline and the owners have made sure to use organic and natural
properties to create these structures.
Let me show you the inside
Villa Duendes is an ecofriendly hotel consisting of four domes located
just a few miles from the coast in the middle of the jungle near Akumal, Mexico.
The domes really feel like they're part of their surroundings.
366 square foot organic dome was the first dome built on the property and it
took four months in total to construct.
Each bag consists of 90% red sand, 3% water,
3% cement and 4% calcium.
These bags are stacked and coiled to create the dome shape and it's secured with wire
Once constructed these domes can resist hurricanes, floods, heat waves,
and even bullets.
Right now I'm going to let Lorena who manages the property here at Vila Duendes
take us through the organic dome and talk about some of its features.
Hello guys. Welcome. My name is Lorena and this is Villa Duendes
I'm going to show you the organic dome.
This is our organic dome
It's divided into levels and on an upper level you have a King size bed
so this one is called organic because it has a lot of organic material.
As we're going to see on the ground level in the kitchen and the ground level
has also these double bed. It's like a circular,
it's not the like the regular mattress we know, eh,
but it can fit two people more.
So the dome is made for four people max occupancy.
And here you having a small kitchenette where you have like basic needs.
It's not like a whole kitchen because also the domes are not precisely made to
make a whole meal here. But, uh,
yeah you have like a blender and coffee maker. You have microwave,
you have a screen TV
You can have a look at this one it's pretty cool.
So you can see the water comes out of the of the bottle and also you have some
more of those details right there on the wall.
And I'm going to show you now the washroom
and here you will also see the cool thing on the faucet.
I love these details.
Made of wood for the holders also the toilet paper.
It's a really nicely detail. I personally love the shell shower.
I don't want to get wet.
I know he found it somewhere on the beach.
These domes were built based on a technique from the middle East in Iraq where they
use it for the war to protect theirselves from the war.
This is the way that it would look before the cover of cement.
It makes them fresher and you can feel like it's cooler here inside
this entrance is the only one entrance of air that we have.
So it's what it makes to circulate the air. And also for the light.
Everything inside the dome had to be cut in a circular manner in order to fit
best inside of the space.
You'll notice the countertops, the shelves, even the tiles,
and the floor had to be cut perfectly to make sure that they fit in a circular
shape.
Circular shape is also very organic and it found a lot in nature,
but we don't see it a lot in architecture.
So it's one reason why these domes feel like they're really part of the
surrounding.
Diego, he's the owner of this place and he's a master creative.
He made the whole idea, this is tequila, this is actually his dog,
and everybody knows Tequila. Everyone that stays here, they,
they know and they love Tequila. So Diego, the dad of Tequila
He's not here right now, but he's the architect that built it. This,
the idea at the beginning wasn't to build more dorms. This was just like, okay,
let's build one dorm and see how it looks.
And then people liked it a lot, then he built the luxury, hippie and hipster
One thing that inspired this ecofriendly hotel design is the resorts that you
see all around the coast of Mexico.
I love hospitality business,
but at the same time sometimes it can be such an unconscious business.
The whole concept of this is to be the most sustainable we can be,
you know,
because we are already putting so much on the earth so we have to give back in
some way.
Diego's goal is to create unique spaces that include the three Rs, reduce,
reuse and recycle.
They're also mostly off-grid using solar and a septic system to provide their
amenities. We also recycle like everything from,
because we also have a kitchen here,
so everything like the oils and plastic and glass,
we recycle everything and the goal is to um,
become completely autonomous, you know, and don't depend of the uh,
electricity company, but it's also quite expensive right now.
the market that comes here is people that is more conscious and they really
want to get in contact with nature, you can really feel it.
One cool thing that the architect and manager does to give back to the community
is they allow people to stay here for free if they pick up a bag of trash on the
beach.
That's just one way how this hotel is more ecofriendly than staying in a resort.
this is my first chance to stay in a dome and I really, really loved it.
I think I want to build one one day and it definitely won't be my last dome
vacation. My favorite part of the dome is probably the ceiling.
I love how you can see the circular shape of the dome as well as the colorful
paint that they use to accentuate that feeling.
So if you're looking for an alternative way to vacation,
this is a really cool way to stay in something that's different,
unique and eco-friendly. Thank you for watching this week's video.
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