Not only does Architecture exist as an element in the landscape, but also as part of it. Hotel Live Aqua’s design features an artifact in continuous dialogue with the geography and cultural heritage of San Miguel de Allende, developed with a holistic aim, along with the master plan for cultural activation of the north zone of the city. Colors, shapes, textures, scents, flavors, traditions of Mexico, towered by the ancient wall of a dam, and an archway build during the first years of this millennium, with two neighbors, a redundant textile factory adapted as art galleries, and a tiny chapel represented our treasures and the starting point for  inside and out people to become owners of the space.

A contemporary structural language was printed into the existing Mexican hacienda-like frame, by adding new volumes esthetically faithful to the essence of the city and its surroundings. The importance of the human scale dictates the horizontal disposition of the hotel’s functional program, around courtyards and squares to promote the gradual discovery of the building. 
The hotel facade, a multilevel square reinterpreted as an urban art gallery with a sculpture by Javier Marin, integrates Live Aqua to the urban tissue. So it happens with the structure of San Miguel, evocated within the hotel. There are narrow ails, copying the small alleys, that open into patios with greens on the top, to frame the blue skies seen almost all year round. Seasonal flowers and fruits appear every now and then. 
You experience a strong sense of arrival when you cross the large antique door opening into a double-height space with a metal latticework ceiling. From there, an entrance courtyard leads, past the Xilitla like staircase-fountain, to various simple and different plazas, that let the old Obraje Dam and rocky scenery of surrounding hills pose for the guests. The landscape is reflected into textures and volumes at the hotel, to grant the space meaning and emotional character. 

Food and drinks at the international level, including Mexican specialties, are served in three restaurants. The ingredients in the different menus are adapted to the fresh products of the farmers in the area, to include them in the dynamics, and to avoid expenses and pollution secondary to delivery.
The guest, once in the room, has the feeling of being in a smaller lodging, which came true placing a group chamber at a lower level.  Their windows overlook a brick slope with water falling down from the dam, onto a stream. The presence of handcrafted objects make the visitors, even in this private area, feel where they are. With the purpose of appealing to all five senses, each room has a record player and six records going from Mexican popular music to symphony concerts.   
Live Aqua San Miguel de Allende redefines the sense of touristic lodging, offering a cultural product that pretends to act as a “second skin” of the visitor’s so as to integrate both, people and building, to the beauty and mystic power of this singular city.