Coppola’s Belize: Turtle Inn

Just beyond the scope of Francis Ford Coppola’s Turtle Inn lies the recently unveiled Beach House, a paragon of natural modernism photographed for the first time by NOWNESS photographer Mauricio Alejo. Architect Laurent Deroo, whose Harajuku A.P.C. store served as a location in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, was commissioned by the Coppola family to create the teak wood, slab slate and aluminum design. "It is a contextual project, not a conceptual one," Deroo says. "My desire was to multiply the views on the seafront from as many places as possible within the compound. The living room can be completely shut from the sunshine or a storm, or it can be completely open, becoming only a hanging roof." Available for private hire, the exclusive addition is a departure from the Balinese-style thatch-roofed villas that dominate Turtle Inn, and features two guest bungalows and a private pool. Every door slides open to a pristine patch of ocean that Jacques Cousteau extolled as the best scuba diving locale in the world. Out the back, a vintage Chris-Craft awaits for a private cruise; guests can dock at Auntie Luba’s, the resort’s beach shack serving local Creole cuisine. Coppola compares the process of cultivating the beachfront abode to that of making a film. “All creative projects share common structure and methods,” he says. “They hold a big idea with attention to many tiny details.”