Casa Nonosi

San José, Costa Rica

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Casa Nonosi

San José, Costa Rica

Firm

Inverse Project

Type

Residential › Private House

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2017

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET

$100K - 500K

Richard and Daniela Hammond and their 2 young children moved to Costa Rica from Los Angeles in 2013 when Richard accepted a transfer position from Gensler, Los Angeles to Gensler, Costa Rica. Richard is originally from Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa. Daniela is from Germany. The two met in Los Angeles while working at Clive Wilkinson Architects. As two architects they always dreamed of designing and building their own home to raise their family. They were able to renovate a desert home near Joshua Tree National Park they gave them a creative outlet and weekend getaway. But the idea of building a custom home of their own was out of reach in Los Angeles with property inflation, but Costa Rica offered a more viable opportunity to achieve this. After moving to Costa Rica, the couple started looking for property and finally, taking a different street while jogging one morning in the hills of Escazu, Richard spotted the ‘Se Vende’ sign that got the whole project started.

The 2000m2 property had two existing structures on the lot that were never completed. They called it a ‘failed dream’ project that was worth salvaging. After countless design options, the couple decided to partially reuse the concrete frame of the old structure in order to save time, cost and embodied energy. This strategy of reuse is a very effective in sustainability terms and by their calculations, prevented 1200 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. The metal roof of the building was removed and reused as metal decking for the new concrete floors and roof areas. In this way it is a truly sustainable adaptive reuse project.

Located on a steep site that drops to a river, the property has great city and mountain views, and despite its remote seeming location is only 15 minute from work and schools. The property sits on the side of a valley that faces due East which give great views of the dormant Irazu volcano and the active Turrialba volcano beyond. On many mornings, a plume of volcanic ash can be seen in the distance.

Once purchasing the land, the family spent one year visiting and picnicking on the property and in this way learned a great deal about the climate and view opportunities that ultimately informed the final design.

The primary goal of the house was to take advantage of the unique views of the site and connect as much as possible with the exterior. The strategy was to connect the two existing buildings with a bridge and stair volume, covered with a glass roof. The living spaces are all placed on the upper level adjacent to an outdoor patio that is flanked by the studio with its own separate entrance. The kitchen and dining space, with a traditional Cana Brava ceiling is sloped toward the nearby mountain of Pico Blanco whose form is framed by a large glass clerestory window. The dining table is a 3m custom Guanacaste wood table selected from a fallen tree.

The interior bridge connects the dining space to the living room area with a custom board formed concrete fireplace and L shaped built in sofa. This pace opens to a 2 meter deep cantilevers balcony that affords the best views of the city and forested valley below.

The 3 bedrooms are places on the lower level with doors opening directly to the garden. The master bathroom has a door opening to a much anticipated outdoor shower to enjoy the mild climate year round.

The 3 main entry’s to the home on the upper level are created with large sliding panels with red frames. These panels serve as living picture frames for the views. As an amateur photographer, Richard enjoyed the analogy to the frame of the camera. As these panels can move they are not static and animate the exterior and interior of the home always framing a new view.

The house is finished thought-out with hand troweled concrete floors and finished plywood cabinetry, a homage to the designers’ Los Angeles days. The structure is concrete block with metal deck concrete floors and roofs. All lighting is LED and water is heated by roof mounted, vacuum tube solar collectors. The studio is covered with a living roof that serves a flat usable area and keeps the internal climate stable. All wood is local Caobilla and is used for trellises and door frames. All internal doors are wood framed, glass panel pocket doors to allow natural light to enter and to save space. On east facing windows, roll shade of recycled ocean plastic were installed.

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Casa Nonosi

San José, Costa Rica

Casa Nonosi

San José, Costa Rica

Product Spec Sheet

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