Following the sale of Eyelevel, the successful Prague-based retail branding and production company he co-founded in 2002, Filip Žák and his wife Petra quit city life and headed to the hills of Costa Rica. On a remote plot overlooking Playa Hermosa, on the country’s south-western coast, framed by six acres of emerald jungle, they commissioned a family home, a five-bedroom concrete house designed by Prague studio Refuel Works. They then began slowly transforming their patch into a resort, which now encompasses the original house, Art Villa; a five-bedroom villa, Atelier, just down the hill; and Coco, a collection of four one-bedroom pods.
Žák was keen to create an unconventional getaway in their ‘small and beautiful corner of the world’, working with three different architects to create a unique style for each space. For Atelier, Dagmar Štěpánová, of Prague-based studio Formafatal, created a low-key, clean-lined perforated aluminium and burnt teak structure that slots right into the lush thickets of tropical wilderness and, as Štěpánová says, ‘erases the boundaries between interior and exterior, while highlighting simplicity and pure lines’. Inside the open-plan space, dappled light filters through the perforated façade panels onto furnishings such as Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s ‘Paulistano’ chairs, and ‘Shibari’ glass pendant lamps by Czech brand Bomma.
Coco, also designed by Formafatal with the Prague-based Archwerk, completes the resort, which includes a fitness suite, a multifunctional space for yoga classes, a 5m-long waterslide connecting Art Villa to the pool at Coco, and a glass-roofed shelter, with mosquito nets for walls, meant for overnight jungle experiences. Spend your days wallowing in Atelier’s infinity pool followed by an evening cocktail on the green roof, which looks out across to Costa Rica’s famous Whale Tail peninsula (an area of land in the shape of a whale’s tail that juts out into the Pacific Ocean) before tucking into a meal cooked by your own private chef using fresh organic ingredients from local farms and markets.
Top, the circular pool at the main entrance to Art Villa. Bottom, a bedroom in Art Villa, featuring a ‘Shibari’ pendant, designed by Kateřina Handlová for Bomma
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
Punta Achiote Road, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica
-
Think small, think electric, as Hyundai attempts to revolutionise the classic Indian three-wheelerHyundai’s Micro Mobility strategy, in collaboration with Indian manufacturer TVS, has revealed two conceptual takes on small electric urban transport in a bid to cut the country’s crushing pollution issue
-
‘Just beneath the surface there’s another world’: How David Lynch used hair and make-up to create his singular universeFrom Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive to Twin Peaks, David Lynch used hair and make-up in his films as a narrative device, writes Laura Havlin
-
Burns Night 2025: where to celebrate in LondonIt is time to raise a wee dram to Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns on Burns Night (25 January). Here is our pick of places to enjoy an evening of generous speechmaking, toasting, and drinking around London
