Costa Rica

Floor to ceiling glass windows bring the green outdoors into the bedroom.

Pool and sunset

Built entirely from teak harvested on-site, this breezy solar-powered home in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, ticks all the right boxes for a pair of avid environmentalists who love surfing.

The slanted roof above the garage, painted white to reflect the heat in the tropical environment, also contains a solar heating system for water. The home also features a rainwater collection system, particularly useful during the long rainy season.

Sliding bamboo panels on the west side of the house can be adjusted to provide shade during the later part of the day.

After: The couple renovated Casa Terrosa for just $46,280, including labor, in a span of seven months.

“Stacey hopes that we can use this as a prototype for a development of artists’ studios someday—we talked about maybe siting several of them together, like an old mobile home park.” The steel sculpture is by San Antonio artist George Shroeder.

Spectacular views continue even in the bathroom, located at the far end of the home. “We managed to change a family’s life by shifting the paradigm of what it means to own a home,” Saxe says.

Each villa is composed of a series of spaces, varying from two to three bedrooms, and offers different views out to the ocean. Overlapping timber roofs made from recycled teak planks and built by local craftsman provide shade from the powerful sun.

Wein House - Besonías Almeida arquitectos

The containers’ sides and ends were removed to make way for large, aluminum-framed clerestory windows that provide sweeping views of the east and west.

The concept was built with affordable materials and easy acquisition, to achieve a project high in cost benefit and accessible to the owners. The prefabrication of the bays for their eventual installation, generated that the constructive process was relatively fast, representing significant savings. Also, the materials were handled honestly, with local labor, and without makeup.

"Radical sustainability

A series of open and closed volumes, the house incorporates a range of materials, including local mahogany, standing-seam metal, shingled glass, and concrete. A green roof tops one end.