Nosara, Costa Rica
Evangelina Quesada and Lucca Spendlingwimmer from the Costa Rican design office of Salagnac Arquitectos designed their new office in Nosara—a village and a district on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula known for its Pacific beaches with their long surf break—raising the building on steel stilts 1.80 meters from the ground to be protected.
This allows the building to adapt to any floods due of the proximity of a river that eventually can cause floods.
The rest of its main structure consists of the same steel structural frame repeated along the building’s reticular geometry.
These geometric systems provide organization and logic to the design which leads to efficiency during construction.
All of this is hidden behind a series of timber sunshades that provide privacy without completely blocking the sun and, at the same time, ensure cross ventilation throughout the building.
On the roof, the solar panels that are connected directly to the main electrical system provide 100% of the electricity the building needs during the typical working day.
Ventilation and lighting concepts that the team has been working on for set the design guidelines years and was an opportunity to apply them in this project.
Therefore, all the spaces have an immediate connection with vegetation, warm materials, and natural light; elements that result in a pleasant and healthy workspace that, in turn, activates all the senses and encourages creativity.
Facing the natural difficulties of the property and in the midst of a global sanitary crisis, the team seeks to establish an architectural language that applies bioclimatic strategies and energy-efficient systems while offering a healthier, and more in-touch with natural, way of developing working spaces and overall lifestyle.
Project: Salagnac Arquitectos Studio
Architects: Salagnac Arquitectos
Client: Salagnac Arquitectos
Photographers: Andrés Garcia Lachner
