Villa Ocotal

The full Almaka engagement: we designed the landscape and pool from the architect's site plan, built both, and have stewarded the property since handover.

The garden uses a restrained native palette — palmas reales, heliconia, native ginger — with a single dramatic bougainvillea allée framing the entrance. The pool is a 12m rectangular form with an attached cold-plunge, all in glass tile, all on a Pentair automation backbone.

Two and a half years on, the property still photographs the way it did the day it was finished. That is, in our view, the only standard worth having.