Oskar Metsavaht, the founder of Brazilian fashion and lifestyle label Osklen, brought his ASAP philosophy — as sustainable as possible — to the interiors of JANEIRO Hotel when it opened in Leblon in 2018, and the result is a building that feels less like a hotel than a very well-edited apartment tower with a view most Cariocas would trade everything for. Architect Lia Siqueira conceived the 19-storey structure as a lean modernist tower on Avenida Delfim Moreira, its facade clad in travertine marble with clean horizontal framing that sets it quietly apart from Leblon's residential streetscape. The ground-floor entrance, visible in the images, presents warm freijó wood slatting beneath a travertine canopy, an outdoor terrace of solid timber benches softening what could have been a corporate arrival. Inside, the 51 rooms are organised around unobstructed ocean views, white linen and pale stone floors kept deliberately bare so that the Atlantic fills every frame. Metsavaht brings texture through slatted wood consoles and low platform beds in warm timber, with pirarucu fish-skin leather introducing a material that is distinctly Amazonian in origin. The dining room captures the building's essential proposition most directly: a slatted cedar ceiling overhead, wicker-seated chairs that echo mid-century Brazilian craft traditions, and a panoramic window running the full width of the space, the Cagarras Islands sitting on the horizon like punctuation. On the rooftop, a glass-sided lap pool is cut into a white-rendered terrace, the ocean surfacing through the transparent wall as if the water inside and outside were continuous.

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Soaking up the breeze, right bang smack on the sand, arms flung wide open to the Atlantic, this is JANEIRO. Located in the middle of Leblon’s marvellous beach-culture, we bring Rio’s bossa vibe to life. Nature is a joyful accomplice. And what about that view? The Cagarras islands scatter across a horizon blue as far as the eye can see. No make-believe needed here. At night, the Moon beams, and in the distance, the lights of Vidigal glitter and dance like fireflies. Pure poetry for the eyes, woven into the urban effervescence of the city. The barefoot simplicity of the beach finds its way into the smallest of details; from the rooms to the food, the music to the art, all is an extension of the golden sands out front. We sway to no other rhythm but Rio’s.