Médano El Pinar

The last project designed by renowned architect Rafael Viñoly, Médano El Pinar is an innovative, ultra-sustainable, luxury, multi-family residential development in Punte del Este, Uruguay.

The unique oceanfront location sits just behind the dunes on the edge of a low-rise residential neighborhood. The building’s long, low-slung, and sinewy shape integrates it with the organic landscape of its pristine setting to minimize its visual impact on the neighborhood and make it completely invisible from the public beach.

Approximately 120 beach-front units with 1 to 5 bedrooms are arranged along the building’s 425-meter length in a terraced configuration that affords almost all the apartments generously proportioned, open-to-the-sky gardens overlooking either the beach to the south or a large lagoon to the north.

Médano El Pinar aims to be the first Nearly Zero-Energy Building and potentially carbon neutral construction in the region through the extensive use of locally sourced carbon sequestering building materials, utility-scale photovoltaic power generation, redundant centralized thermal plants, rainwater recapture, green roofing, heat pumps and ubiquitous cross ventilation.