When Brazilian hotelier Gustavo Filgueiras, CEO of São Paulo’s luxurious Emiliano hotel, and his family-owned company secured the opportunity to build on one of the last vacant lots along Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana, they knew the property came with a responsibility to uphold the illustrious design pedigree of the beachfront (or orla in colloquial Portuguese). Artist and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx’s celebrated Promenade (1970)—a UNESCO World Heritage site and pride of the city—stretches along the shore at its seaside entrance. Designed by São Paulo architect Arthur Casas and the U.S.-based Chad Oppenheim, the Filgueiras’s second Emiliano hotel gives the Avenida Atlântica a stylish 21st-century flourish while simultaneously paying tribute to the neighborhood’s mid-20th-century heyday.

Walking along the Burle Marx masterpiece, one is immediately drawn to the Emiliano’s striking facade: a honeycombed resin screen inspired by the cobogó, a perforated, ceramic tile typical of many modernist Brazilian buildings of the 20th century. This dynamic elevation is made of white retractable panels that can be opened wide to reveal guest room balconies or closed for privacy, without denying occupants a sea breeze or stunning view.