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San Lucas

PUNTARENAS, COSTA RICA. 2021

The new visitor center of San Lucas Island, a former maximum security prison, welcomes users in a radial bamboo structure where they process their access, and then enter the enveloping structure that celebrates an internal patio from which the view towards the dispensary is framed, a heritage and emblematic building of the island, then a route is generated by an elevated walkway where you can enjoy the views of the sea and the forest, passing by the store and the cafe, ending with a viewpoint that contemplates the stone corral, vestige of a construction of the old prison. The new building becomes a benchmark for low-impact construction that uses efficient and eco-friendly systems such as rainwater collection, solar energy, bio-planters and dry toilets to treat bathroom waste and grey water. The structural system is made of bamboo, a material that is gaining relevance in this historical moment with a crisis in the import of materials such as steel and the possible shortage of wood. Earth walls built with ancestral techniques such as rammed earth and bahareque, which have great thermal, acoustic and aesthetic qualities, and which take advantage of the island's own soil resource.

ARCH. FRANCISCO VÁSQUEZ MAY. / ARCH. VILMER LÓPEZ MONTERO. / ARCH. KARINA OBANDO. / ARCH. REBECA CHANG. HONORABLE MENTION.

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