Tree House / QBO3 Arquitectos

Architects: QBO3 Arquitectos
Location: Puerto Carrillo, Costa Rica
Architects In Charge: Mario Vargas, Carlos Vásquez, Daniel Palma and Ignacio Vargas
Area: 280.0 m2
Project Year: 2015
Photography: Carlos Vásquez

Structural Engineer: Oscar Mario Gonzalez
Construction: QBO3 Arquitectos

From the architect. The Tree House project was born as a refuge that could allow an escape from the city for our client, chemist by profession and artist by vocation. The site is located in Costa Rica, in a forest-like area of Puerto Carrillo de Hojancha in Guanacaste.

From the beginning of the process and due to the conditions of the site, it was proposed to conserve the largest number of trees on the property. This became the starting point to study the relation of the house with its immediate context where concepts such as permeability, integration and the exterior – interior relationship became fundamental in the design process.

The house needed to be safe since it remains uninhabited for many weeks a year and resistant to the climatic conditions that affect the area, such as heavy rains, sea breeze and hot temperatures. From these limitations, we come up with the idea of proposing a brutalist architecture, a concrete refuge armed with permeable membranes that adapt to the temporalities, the architectural program and the climate.

A point of great importance was the integration of an existing tree that crossed the living area, creating a synergy between the house and the surrounding nature, “the exterior is lived in the interior and the interior is projected outwards.”

The house is composed of three pure volumes, which serve as containers for the requested space activities, these are articulated with the terrain topography and able to adapt according to the requirements of its users.

The main access is high above the level of parking area where a path raises allowing you to be in constant contact with your natural surroundings.

The social area it’s the heart of the house where we have the kitchen, dinner and a cast in place sofa surrounding the tree. The enclosure in exposed steel, perforated with an abstract pattern that was generated from the art made by our client, allows to generate an interior-exterior connection with this special filter.

This social space opens onto the terrace that contains the pool wich overflows into the surrounding forest, projecting a sound that imitates a stream providing a special sensory connection to the dwelling.

A large percentage of the windows are protected by these perforated steel structures that generate an interaction with the movement of the sun by sifting the spaces during the day.

The main room consists of a space on two levels, the lower part is the bedroom with its bathroom, overlooking the rear garden where a composition was made with the existing trees, adding white ground stone of the area. The ladder is floating on the wall in dark exposed concrete, projecting the vertical circulation with steel tensioners that function as virtual railing and take us to the artist’s workshop. The workshop is at treetop height where you can exit to the rooftop allowing a unique connection to the artist with his surroundings at all times.