Five terraces stepping down the hillside so that almost every room looks out over the one below, towards the Strait. Hotel Origen is a boutique hotel project at Alcaidesa (La Línea-San Roque, Cádiz) that Klic Arquitectos took to concept stage during 2025. The plot allows 11,395 m² of floor area across 28,224 m² of sloping ground, and using up all of that in one compact block would have shut out the very thing that makes the site special: the view. So the scheme is broken up and stepped instead.
The brief and what the planning rules allowed
The commission was a feasibility study (estudio previo) for tourist accommodation on 28,224 m² of undeveloped urban land, on a slope, facing the Alcaidesa Links and Alcaidesa Heathland courses. It began with a false start worth admitting: the first site documentation to arrive belonged to a different plot in the sector. It was spotted, set aside, and the starting point rebuilt around the cadastral record (consulta catastral) of 28 August 2025. Checking the plot before you draw takes half an hour. Finding out once the layout is done takes the layout with it.
The detailed planning document for the plot (Estudio de Detalle) splits its floor area into two pools: 6,285 m² of “other uses”, capped at 100 units, and 5,110 m² of “compatible uses”, where the number of units is not regulated. The proposal rests on that reading, with a caveat set down in writing in the document we delivered: whether hotel use fits within the compatible-uses pool is subject to the interpretation of the competent authority. The planning sheet adds two limits that shape the hotel: ground floor plus one storey, with a maximum height of 7.5 m, and 60% plot coverage.
A boutique hotel at Alcaidesa, stepped down the slope
The first decision was not to fight the topography. The complex rests on five accommodation terraces at +86.20, +89.35, +92.50, +95.65 and +98.80, 3.15 m apart; the pool sits on its own platform at +83.05 and the highest roof is at +101.95. Stepping reduces earthworks, keeps the complex low-rise and lets almost every unit look out over the one below.
On that base the light-footprint approach holds: low volumes, flat green roofs, deep pergolas and through-courtyards for shade and cross ventilation, and a sequence of discovery between lobby, restaurants, spa and rooms, so the hotel reveals itself in stages rather than all at once from the entrance. Circulation cores are grouped rather than repeated on every terrace. The grid stays adjustable, so the layout can shift without redrawing the scheme.
Module, mix and materials
The hotel is built from three unit types, all with a terrace: a tourist-apartment studio of 35.22 m² usable (39.45 m² gross) and two double rooms of 24.84 and 29.27 m² usable. Combined, they produce 204 accommodation units: 104 hotel rooms and 100 tourist apartments. The +95.65 level is the densest, with 58 units.
The mix is not fixed. Two adjoining studios join into a two-bedroom apartment and two doubles make a suite, so an operator can shift the balance between rooms and apartments without touching the structure of the project. Dimensional requirements were checked against Decree 47/2004 on hotel establishments and Decree 194/2010 on tourist apartments, the two decrees that set what may be called a room and what may be called an apartment.
The materials palette is restrained and timeless: local ostionera stone, lime, whitewash, treated timber, handcrafted ceramics and aluminium joinery in earthy tones. The interior design takes its cues from the Andalusian cortijo, the vernacular architecture of the Campo de Gibraltar and contemporary tailoring, for a discreet luxury tied to the Atlantic-Mediterranean climate of the Strait. Nothing that shouts; everything built to last.
Where the project stands
The feasibility study closes at 13,082 m² of gross floor area: 9,275 m² of accommodation (71%) and 3,807 m² of common areas (29%), covering reception, restaurant, gym, pool, wellness, administration and storage. Of that, 11,348 m² counts towards the 11,395 m² maximum floor area. That is 99.6% of the permitted area, with 47 m² to spare: fine-tuned, not rounded off.
The work ran from June to October 2025: massing studies on 2 September, terrace layouts, a 3D model exported on 8 and 11 September, and five dated versions of the presentation up to 1 October. The project remains at concept stage: no College of Architects approval (visado), no permit and no construction. What exists is a layout tested against the planning rules, which is what a feasibility study is expected to deliver before deciding whether the development goes ahead.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: Contemporary new build with a Mediterranean-Atlantic character; stepped complex on five terraces
- Use: Boutique hotel with complementary services: hotel rooms and tourist apartments
- Location: Alcaidesa, La Línea de la Concepción / San Roque (Cádiz), Andalusia
- Design year: 2025
- Status: Feasibility study and preliminary design. Concept stage, not built
- Gross floor area: 13,082 m² (9,275 m² accommodation + 3,807 m² common areas)
- Permitted floor area: 11,348 m² countable against an 11,395 m² maximum (99.6%)
- Plot area: 28,224 m²
- Units: 204 accommodation units: 104 hotel rooms and 100 tourist apartments
- Client: Private developer (limited company)
- Klic services: Architectural and interior design and end-to-end management of the commission; at this stage, planning analysis, volumetric fit, product definition and 3D model
- Team: Klic Arquitectos · Architecture studio in Málaga
Other hotel projects
Alongside its residential work, Klic Arquitectos designs hospitality, retail and public-facility spaces. Take a look, for example, at the Kids Club at Hotel Puente Romano in Marbella, along with other studio projects on the Costa del Sol and in southern Spain. Are you considering a hotel project at Alcaidesa, Sotogrande or elsewhere in the Campo de Gibraltar? Contact Klic Arquitectos.
