BALCONY SCENE

A Brazilian island hotel offers a unique approach to the alfresco experience

- DAVEN WU

Rather self-deprecatingly, Auka Boipeba describes itself as an inn, though it's certainly not like any inn we've ever been to. Located on Boipeba, a bijou Bahian island off the Brazilian coast, it is the work of São Paulo-based architecture studio FGMF, who have gently inserted 20 suites into a stretch of jungle on the edge of the beach.

The brief from the owners, veteran hoteliers Antônio Carlos Berti and Rogério Sasso (who run four other guesthouses on the island), was to work with local materials.

They also wanted every suite to have an ocean view, a generous balcony and a private pool. Almost immediately, the architects encountered a problem, realising that the only way for all rooms to face the ocean would be to have 'a single block intersecting the land at an awkward angle'.