Toronto-based interior design firm Chapi Chapo Design has revealed the design inspiration behind The St Regis Kanai Resort, Riviera Maya, a hotel which honours ancient Mayan civilisation, as well as its natural surroundings. Chapi Chapo Design is responsible for all interior spaces across the resort, including 124 guestrooms and suites, the resort’s culinary venues, The St Regis Spa – which comprises eight treatment suites and a standalone salon – as well as 50,000 ft² of indoor and outdoor event space.
Owned by Grupo Alhel, the 124-key hotel comprise an array of guestrooms and 19 suites, each offering ocean views and a private terrace or plunge pool. Led by Chapi Chapo Design’s co-founder and partner, Tatiana Sheveleva, the resort’s design brings to life the stories and folklore embedded into Mexican culture. The Maya, known to have excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, left behind a surprising amount of architecture and symbolic artwork, hence common threads woven through the resort’s design pay respect to their legacy.
At the top of Mayan society were the kings, or ‘kuhul ajaw’, who were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, making elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals very important to Mayan culture. As a result, throughout the hotel’s guestrooms, design elements draw inspiration from ceremonial garments made by Maya women, including those found on bedside ceramic light pendants and intricate walnut wood-carved headboards with bronze-finished mirrors. Circular shapes and hanging mirrors within guestrooms take inspiration from nearby cenotes – natural pits that result from the collapse of limestone bedrock. Rich materials imitating the ecosystem within which the resort lays include marble with hues of blue, grey and green.
Like the Maya, Chapi Chapo Design also drew inspiration from Kanai’s rich biodiversity. To bring the Mayans’ philosophy of Kanai being ‘heaven on earth’ to life, it was important for designers to connect guests with nature, hence the resort’s layout and materials are used invite nature in, allowing guests to physically experience Riviera Maya from within.
“Chapi Chapo Design is honoured to continue working closely with Marriott International and the St Regis brand by telling the story of the Mayan peoples and not only protecting the land but preserving the rituals and traditions they once practised through our design,” said Tatiana Sheveleva. “The resort awakens a journey to enlightenment through ancient Mayan storytelling and offers an inspiring welcome to one of the world’s most dramatic secluded settings – a sanctuary where time does not exist.”
While Chapi Chapo Design have taken care of the hotel’s interiors, its architecture is courtesy of Mexican firm Edmonds International. The resort’s circular shape is inspired by the constellation Pleiades, and results in ocean views from nearly every angle. Designed with a minimal construction footprint in order to protect the natural reserve, The St. Regis Kanai Resort, Riviera Maya has been suspended above a mangrove forest, with different elements of the hotel connected by elevated walkways. The Maya believed the sky was the entry to heaven, hence the resort’s unique landscape pays tribute to Maya astronomer-priests who looked to the Sun and Moon for guidance and protection.
Similar nods to nature and spirituality occur across the hotel’s eight F&B spaces, including in the St Regis Bar, where a handmade abstract mural pays tribute to the ceremonial temples and pyramids built by the Mayans in honour of the gods.
