El Equipo Creativo Escondido Rooftop Bar - Marbella - Spain

Escondido Rooftop Bar is El Equipo Creativo's open-air destination perched atop Kimpton Los Monteros Hotel in Marbella. Conceived as part of a wider reimagination of the hotel's public spaces, Escondido has its own distinct identity — one rooted in the specific character of its location.

Organised across stepped platforms at different levels, the rooftop generates distinct zones, each with its own atmosphere. On the upper level, a bar sets the tone with seventies references, geometric patterns, and a warm terracotta palette. Below, a panoramic pool clad in retro hand-glazed ceramic tiles stretches toward open views of the Mediterranean. By day, the atmosphere is relaxed; as the light fades, the space shifts — more social, more alive.

The design draws on a specific idea of Marbella: the jet-set leisure of the 1970s, when the Costa del Sol first became synonymous with a particular kind of effortless luxury. El Equipo Creativo used this as a creative starting point — not as nostalgia, but as a way of distilling something essential about the place: its warmth, its ease, its relationship with pleasure.

The oversized checkerboard floor — terracotta and cream ceramic tiles — gives the rooftop an immediately legible identity. Against this graphic base, the furniture introduces colour in deliberate contrasts: dusty rose loungers, mustard yellow wire chairs, deep green upholstery, striped and fringed parasols. The bar sits beneath a timber pergola that filters the evening light and frames views toward the Sierra Blanca and the sea. Throughout, Mediterranean grasses, palms, and terracotta planters blur the line between the designed space and the landscape beyond.

The result is a space that feels entirely of its place — as if Marbella itself had always had this rooftop.

About El Equipo Creativo

El Equipo Creativo is a Barcelona-based interior design studio founded by Oliver Franz Schmidt, Natali Canas del Pozo, and Lucas Echeveste Lacy. Specialising in hospitality, gastronomy and brand spaces, the studio has designed some of the world's most recognised venues — including Disfrutar (No. 1 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2024) — and completed landmark hospitality projects across Europe and beyond. With over 70 international awards, the studio is one of the most recognized interior design practices in Spain.

Photo credit: Veerle Evens