Nalu Resort in Costa Rica, Caribbean Coast Building, Architecture Images

Nalu Resort in Costa Rica

Hotel Project in Nosara, Costa Rica, Central America – design by Studio Saxe Architects

8 Aug 2017

Nalu Resort on Caribbean Coast

Architects: Studio Saxe

Location: Nosara, Costa Rica

Jungle yoga and forest dwellings combine in Costa Rican eco resort

Studio Saxe has completed a boutique hotel and yoga studio set into in tropical landscape of Nosara, Costa Rica. The project is another in a long line of sustainable buildings from the practice that blend contemporary design with local craftsmanship, embracing the natural environment that surrounds and frames the architecture.

Nosara has become a destination for visitors from around the world for health, wellness and surfing and so the owners of Hotel Nalu-Nosara, Nomel and Mariya Libid, wanted a design that reflects the attitude of their guests. The yoga studio, which has also become incredibly popular as a multipurpose gym space, is enveloped by lush vegetation on all sides and therefore becomes a jungle retreat for exercise and relaxation.

Guests at the hotel are provided with individual pavilion ‘homes’ rather than rooms, located just a few minutes walk from the ocean. By breaking up the mass of the traditionally monolithic hotel, the architects were able scatter living spaces amongst the trees and create a sense of privacy while surrounded by the natural world.

Each pavilion has been carefully positioned following meticulous research into wind and sun patterns, while ensuring they are all provided with an individual view out to the landscape. Overlapping timber roofs project out over each pavilion providing shade from the intense equatorial sun. These roofs are made of recycled Teak planks, creating uneven patterns that further emphasise this tension between local craftsmanship and modern design. Rooms are connected via corridors that filter dappled sunlight down from the pergola roofs above and frame more views out the lush surroundings.

Architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe said: “Our project at Nalu represents the power of simple, low-key, modern tropical architecture. It has quikly become a town favourite, which shows that there is a real desire to occupy spaces that bring people closer to nature, while addressing the needs of contemporary life.”

Nalu Resort – Building Information

Location: Nosara, Guanacaste
Date of completion: 2017
Client: Nalu Nosara
Area: Approx: 656 sqm
Architecture Team: Studio Saxe
Design Director: Benjamin Garcia Saxe
Project Architect: Alejandro Gonzalez & Cesar Coto
Project Coordinator: Laura Morelli
Construction Documentation: Roger Navarro
Structural Engineer: Sotela Alfaro Ltda.
Electromechanical Engineer: Dynamo Studio
Builder: Construction PROS

About Studio Saxe
Benjamin Garcia Saxe set up his own practice in San Jose, Costa Rica in 2004, with the aim of exploring our relationship with the natural environment through architecture. Since then, Studio Saxe has grown into an award-winning international practice made up of a multidisciplinary team, creating buildings and spaces by blending technological innovation with handcrafted techniques to form truly sustainable designs. Founded on the belief that buildings must connect to their landscape – whether a tropical paradise or a concrete jungle – Studio Saxe brings a global attitude to solve local problems.

Ideas and techniques from around the world can be harnessed to benefit communities, both at home and abroad. Local traditions and identities are explored and developed, ensuring a process whereby we learn from the past and build for the future.

The dedicated architects and designers at Studio Saxe uncover new design solutions for every project, treating each building as an opportunity to improve methods and approaches, responding to specific places. Working alongside clients and collaborators, the studio continually seeks new forms and functions that blur the boundaries between natural habitats and inhabited space.