It’s unlikely the sunny little resort town of La Barra on Uruguay’s Punta del Este, population <400, is in imminent danger of rioting, but if the unthinkable happens, Casa Zinc is well set up to repel missiles with its façade of corrugated metal and five metre gates. That probably wasn’t the reason Aaron Hojman chose to clad his two-storey hotel in zinc (you can walk around the side of the fortifications anyway) but it makes an instant and very interesting first impression.

Inside is certainly less forward thinking – in fact it’s a delightfully gentle blast from the past. Hojman owns an antique shop and can’t help himself when it comes to an auction. The six rooms of Casa Zinc have seen the benefit of his eye for a quality lot, the emphasis being placed on preservation rather than restoration as the peeling paint and cracked leather indicate. The kind of place where every floorboard creak tells a story, and time stands still.