- 2026 Gold Prize
- From Hotel Architecture
Laiva Plaza Hotel
Project Description
Laiva Plaza is a boutique hotel located in the historic center of San José del Cabo. The building is conceived as an urban piece integrated into the pedestrian fabric, capable of contributing public space while offering an intimate lodging experience connected to its immediate surroundings.
The project is organized with a mixed-use ground floor, two levels of guest rooms, and a Roof Garden with amenities oriented toward views of the urban context. Its placement responds to the public and walkable character of the historic center, as well as to the use of color as an expression of cultural identity. Based on these conditions, the building is set back to create a public atrium that establishes a sequence of shade, ventilation, and transition between the street and the interior.
The access is conceived as an open threshold, where a shaded passage articulates the encounter between public space and interior. The project is not conceived as an isolated object, but rather as an extension of the street, incorporating the urban flow into its spatial organization.
Formally, Laiva is defined by a system of interwoven walls that generate patios and connected terraces. The volume steps back progressively to respect the scale of the historic center, while the rhythmic repetition of its elements recalls the papel picado banners present in the streets of San José. The use of color and handcrafted stucco provides a sensitive and timeless materiality, consolidating an architecture of hospitality rooted in its urban and cultural context.
RA! is an architecture studio founded in 2017 in Mexico City by Cristóbal Ramírez de Aguilar, Pedro Ramírez de Aguilar, and Santiago Sierra. The studio focuses on planning and building spaces rooted in human experience.
RA! conceives projects that do not originate from form, but from memory, the body, and lived experience seeking to share and convey emotion. Spaces are not imposed; they are discovered. They are conceived through an understanding of what already exists: habits, emotions, memories, and the environment, and are translated into architecture that resonates with those who inhabit it.
Each project is conceived through a narrative that unfolds step by step, designing sequences rather than objects. Atmosphere is as important as function; emotion as vital as technical precision, with the aim of creating spaces that are felt, remembered, and that truly work.
There is no pursuit of a formal language, but rather an attentive gaze toward context, through openness and inquiry. Each project begins with a deep reading of the place, the people who will inhabit it, and the spirit of the commission. We explore through experimentation with materials, scales, models, drawings, systems, and iterations. We embrace error as a natural part of the creative process. This flexibility allows us to avoid repetition.
At RA!, we strive to create architecture that blends the sensitive with the functional: spaces that respond to reality, but are also inspired by abstraction.
The studio and its work have been recognized with national and international awards such as the CAM-SAM Grand Prize, the Architectural MasterPrize, the Félix Candela Award, the A+ Architizer Awards, the LOOP Design Awards, and the Simon Architecture Prize granted by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona. Their work has been published in international media such as Domus, Divisare, Dezeen, Designboom, ArchDaily, and Arquine, consolidating an active presence in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and other regions.
