Amid the lush tropical landscape of Quintana Roo, just inland from the celebrated beaches of Tulum, Selvadentro introduces an alternative approach to development: one that seeks not to impose upon the jungle, but to exist in quiet dialogue with it. Conceived by Estudio AMA, this 103-hectare conceptual masterplan unfolds as a “habitable sanctuary,” merging ecological sensitivity with spatial intention. Instead of reshaping the land for efficiency alone, Selvadentro frames architecture as a mediator between natural continuity and human presence.
Selvadentro Technical Information
- Architects1-3: Estudio AMA
- Location: Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico
- Site Area: 103 hectares
- Project Year: 2025
- Images: © Estudio AMA
In Selvadentro, we didn’t design to impose architecture on the jungle—we designed to let it dissolve into the forest. Every structure is a negotiation with the land, not a conquest of it.
– Estudio AMA
Selvadentro Images
Contextual Framework: Reclaiming Nature through Design
The project’s location is neither incidental nor neutral. Tulum is currently at the crossroads of rapid infrastructural transformation—most notably, the construction of the Tren Maya and a new international airport—both bring the promise and threat of accelerated development. Selvadentro enters this context cautiously, proposing a masterplan that integrates strategic access while resisting the environmental erosion typically associated with mega-development.
The proposal embraces the terrain’s natural memory instead of erasing it. The site includes cenotes—subterranean freshwater sinkholes considered sacred by the ancient Maya—alongside a rich array of native flora and topographic variations. These features are not merely conserved; they are spatial protagonists within the design narrative. The result is an approach that frames the land not as a commodity but as a condition.
Spatial Strategies: Immersion, Limits, and Integration
At the heart of the plan lies a central spine—an infrastructural and experiential axis—that stitches together the project’s four phased developments. The spine connects a constellation of public spaces and residences, allowing for a density gradient and immersion. The proposal ensures that built form never overwhelms its vegetal context by regulating construction to just 30% of each lot, with strict setbacks (10 meters front and back, 7 meters laterally).
Architectural integration is further achieved by elevating all buildings 60 cm above ground level, allowing vegetation to pass beneath and minimizing disruption to the site’s hydrology and root systems. This gesture—subtle yet spatially profound—transforms architecture into a filter rather than a boundary.
Residential typologies are organized around inward-looking geometries:
Casa K’uuchil adopts a C-shaped plan centered around a courtyard, creating a porous yet protected spatial core.
Casa Tuukul is bisected by a central fissure, a passive light and ventilation strategy that blurs internal-external thresholds.
Casa K’aab’al returns to the classic patio typology, aligning contemporary living with ancient models of spatial introspection.
These typologies do not seek iconicity but rather atmospheres—dwelling as environmental calibration.
Materiality and Construction Logics: Building with the Land
Material selection at Selvadentro is deliberately understated. Local stone and hardwoods dominate for their aesthetic continuity with the landscape and their embodied sustainability. Chukum—a lime-based finish derived from a native tree resin—reflects a thoughtful convergence of pre-Hispanic technique and contemporary texture.
More than a matter of palette, these materials suggest a construction ethic rooted in locality. The master plan leans into traditional building techniques, engaging regional labor and knowledge systems. There is no imported exoticism here; rather, the architecture grows from the forest, through it, and eventually—one suspects—will return to it.
Even the project’s infrastructure resists over-design. The main road remains unpaved (terracería), a choice that minimizes ground compaction and runoff while signaling a refusal to sanitize the site’s roughness. In an era where luxury is often equated with over-articulation, Selvadentro finds its refinement in restraint.
Selvadentro Cultural Resonance
Cenotes serve as both physical and symbolic anchors within the plan. From the Casa de los Cenotes—a clubhouse whose pool merges into a natural aquatic system—to the spiraling Nidos Mirador, which begins six meters below ground in a cenote and culminates in a 360° canopy-level platform, the project explores spatial verticality as a tool for immersion and contemplation.
Other communal spaces extend this ethos, such as the cave-carved Wellness Center, the arboreal Casa del Árbol, and the Holistic Pavilion. They are not programmed spectacles but experiential thresholds: places where daily ritual replaces spectacle, and design yields to atmosphere.
This approach challenges standard models of resort or gated community planning, where amenity spaces are often over-prescribed and under-experienced. Here, landscape is not a backdrop but an active participant, and architecture becomes a frame for its rhythms and ephemerality.
In broader terms, Selvadentro offers a case study in site-responsive master planning—a countermodel to extraction-based development, which is all too common in Latin America’s ecologically fragile zones. The project’s emphasis on limited footprint, passive strategies, and cultural symbolism provides a relevant blueprint for future architectural interventions in similar contexts.
Selvadentro Plans
Selvadentro Image Gallery
About Estudio AMA
Selvadentro by Estudio AMA redefines sustainable masterplanning in Tulum, where architecture dissolves into the jungle through restraint, materiality, and ritual.
Credits and Additional Notes
Design Team: Andrés Muñoz, Marisol Flores, Tannia Tafolla, Emmanuel Crisanto, Mariel Flores, Andrea Flores, Fernando Robles, David Flores
Visualizations: Formatelier, Maximiliano Zepeda
Client/Developer: JJF Creando
