Candela

What was your inspiration to create Candela? What is the story behind it?

Candela was designed around the concept of creating a community that enhances the quality of life for its residents while being deeply connected to its natural surroundings. We selected Tulum for our first project because of the natural resources and connectivity to Cancun and Mexico City — it’s accessible yet somewhat isolated.

Tulum is a magical place in terms of culture, gastronomy and archaeological sites. Even as a town of 60,000 people, it has attracted incredible minds. It’s a place that has always inspired, and we thought it was a place where we could do something different. 

My background is in environmental engineering, and I wanted to do a project designed around water. Tulum has a lot of water — underground rivers, oceans, cenotes, lagoons and a lot of rain. So we wanted to treat the water with respect and leave it as clean as when we arrived at the site. 

For the project, we hired Estudio Macias Peredo — a team of architects from Guadalajara. When we met these guys, it was like magic — they understood the concept, the project and where we wanted to go. Importantly, we wanted to preserve as much of the jungle as possible, rather than removing trees and putting them back again afterwards. 

They designed these pyramid-shaped villas where you interact with the jungle and the light at different levels — some are more covered in shadow, others are super open. The main strategy was to build upwards rather than spreading the villas, and in doing so, we preserved 70% of the existing jungle on the site. 

When we were considering the interior design, there was only one studio we wanted to work with - Habitación 116. It’s the number one studio in Mexico. Normally, they don’t do commercial work, but they liked the scale of the project and fell in love with the idea that it was an homage to what was already there — the jungle and the community. 

We named the project Candela because it’s a specific type of light that requires some form of human energy to appear. We envisioned it as a beacon for how we can develop with nature and not just displace it. 

Additionally, we drew inspiration from systemic acupuncture — the idea that you can modify a system without having to touch the whole. If you touch the needle in the right place, you can affect the whole movement.

At this point in time, four of the villas are finished and two are available for rent. In the next four months, we will deliver three more and the other five in 2026. We received our first guests at the start of 2025. 

How would you describe the architecture and interior design? What is the atmosphere like staying there?

Candela looks beautiful online. But everyone who steps in has a reaction: “Now I get it.” The architects have published a book called “Quiet down the noise.” They’re not talking about the physical noise but the visual noise and how they tame this down with materiality and the design itself. 

If you come to Tulum, you might be coming from a big city to a retreat or to slow down. Or maybe to work remotely but at a different rhythm. So we wanted to preserve this essence of slowing down, as that’s what happens at Candela. 

When you enter the villas, you arrive in this magical place made from chukum — the Mayan stucco used to build the pyramids. It combines the cortex from a tree with cement and mineral colour. It was a way to create surfaces and give them colour, as well as provide water resistance. 

Two guys from Mexico and Argentina started to revive this material a few years ago, and it has become super popular. At Candela Tulum, we have used it on the floors, the walls, the roof - everything is unified. The colour of the villas is the natural colour of the soil, and the colour in the pool is the reflection of the water with the chukum. 

For the hard floors in the bathrooms and on the stairs, we used Mexican travertine from Veracruz and Puebla. It’s a tropical wood that’s long been used in Mexican haciendas. So the architecture is a mix of Mayan and colonial inspiration.

The use of light was also important to us. Everything is indirect light, from the niches in the roof to the reflection off the floors. This creates warmth as you never have bright lights, and your circadian rhythms are at their best. People always sleep very well at Candela. These days, that’s a luxury. 

In the design, we wanted to create the experience of being inside and outside. There are terraces on every single floor, all on the same side, so guests have privacy and views of the jungle. 

On the bottom floor, you can see plants that are used for tea and food, grown in Mayan raised beds. As you go up, you find orchids and bird’s nest ferns. Eventually, you’re at the canopy level and can watch the sunrise and sunset. 

Something else that was super important to us was the use of rock-limestone, which was also used in building the pyramids. The people who live around Tulum are specialists in carving rocks, so the base is hand-cut limestone.

To you personally, what makes Candela so special?”

The combination of everything that happens in the place transforms you. You might come with a lot of physical and mental luggage. But after you arrive, you drop things, connect to the place and become grounded. 

It’s a more simplistic life that transforms the way you see things. We often see our guests arrive stressed & burnt out. After staying with Candela, we see that rekindled connection to themselves and nature return. 

Some guests come from Mexico City, and they have never experienced the nature we have — they are amazed by it. I love to see Mexicans being proud of Mexico. When they stay at Candela, they get to eat Mexican food in a place designed by Mexicans and with interiors styled by Mexicans and photographed by Mexicans, all while honouring Mexican heritage. I’m very proud of that. 

Do you have a policy regarding children?

We welcome all ages, but the rooftop is not ideal for young kids, particularly if they are climbing. We have a key so parents can lock it. Also, it’s important to remember you are in the jungle and parents need to be watchful of children.