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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Vistamar 17 in Guanacaste, Costa Rica by Sarco Architects Costa RicaOctober 27th, 2016 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Sarco Architects Costa Rica This was a very particular project due to the clients it was being built for. The property had been purchased by two brothers and their wives, and the idea was to create a Luxury Vacation Home for both couples.  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick
 Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick They had agreed between them that all project decisions were to be made via a majority vote, so the overall design process and evaluation was at all times committee-based, even though the project was a private residence. The clients wanted to have a home that featured lots of outdoor space, both for use as living spaces as well as terraces, balconies, etc., to enjoy the view from different vantage points. They also required the main interior living space to be situated to take advantage of the best view, and to be somehow elevated in order to gain a better view and to allow to look over the tree line below, located down the golf course.  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick The home had to feature a main master bedroom that would serve both couples, with a large walk-in closet for both, plus an additional closet for use when the home was rented. Also required were a guest master bedroom, two additional guest bedrooms, and a studio that could be converted into an additional guest bedroom or a service bedroom was requested.  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick Another request from the owners is that they wanted the home to have an indoor-outdoor feel to it, but they wanted the entire home to be fully air-conditioned. As they understood the need for the different structures, they expressed they wanted to be able to walk from one end of the home to the other while being inside air conditioned space. They had visited other vacation homes where they needed to walk from indoors to outdoors and back to indoors to say, go from a bedroom to the kitchen and they did not like that.  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick The clients had also sent a book full of magazine clippings showing the elements that they thought they liked for the home. We were instructed to make use of that book as an initial inspiration on the home and to be able to somehow integrate the common feel that we could determine from that book.  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick In order to work with the terrain, which not only was very irregular in shape but also had varying slopes in different places, we decided that the home needed to be broken up into several main structures which would work into different parts of the terrain, and would have articulation or connection structures which then would also serve as places where there would be changes in floor levels, so the structure would work with the land.  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick During the design, working with the client’s inspiration book proved challenging, since it was evident that four clear different tastes were present in the book, although they had not realized this. Even though this was the case it was possible to find several themes as common denominators which were used into a first design proposal for them.  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick The interesting part is that once the first design proposal was completed, and reviewed by the group their first general comment was that “…we acknowledge how you have been able to work with the instructions that we gave you, and we recognize how elements have been used to create a theme and style for the home, and it doesn’t feel in any way as a grouping of clippings or ideas.”  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick Their next comment was: “Even though this is the case, as a group we don’t like the result of what we asked for. We don’t know what we should do, since it is clear that our instructions resulted in a design we don’t like. We want to then allow you to propose a design that you think will work for this site and with the requirements we need for this home.”  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick  Image Courtesy © Quinn Kirkpatrick During the process we also realized that due to the shape of the lot’s building envelope, parts of the home were going to be extremely close to the road, which from where this property is located then goes sharply downhill (with the accompanying engine noise from cars and trucks). This is especially the case in the western end of the lot, where the shape is of a spear, and this was also the place of the best view from the lot, which we wanted to maximize by location the social area there. Special attention was needed in this area.
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Tags: Costa Rica, Guanacaste Categories: House, Residential |
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