Overview
Costa Rica Athletic Center creates small village amongst tree tops.
As an extension to the Gilded Iguana Hotel in the town of Nosara, The Athletic Center was designed as a small village amongst the trees that creates a public space which integrates locals with visitors with similar interests of pursuing an active lifestyle and wellbeing.
The site is situated in an incredibly central location acts as a perfect “adhesive” for retail, sports, and leisure which in turn coexist within the exuberant nature. A surf-shop, bike-shop, gym, and multiple studios for Jiu Jitsu, yoga, and personal massagescreate the perfect atmosphere for those wishing to come to Costa Rica in search of activity and fun.
Concept
Studio Saxe and the client wanted to exploreintelligent ways of adapting a complex and diverse program of spaceswithin the existing framework of trees and wildlife of the site. Human activityis intended to co-existin symbiotic relationship with the natural world in order to accentuate the path towards wellbeing.
Design
Studio Saxe decided to break the mass of what could be a large building into separate pieces of program that in turn could fit within the voids around the existing trees,whilst interconnecting them with bridges and paths to create a public realm that is both diverse and intricate.The result is a series of interior public spaces that connect people to nature whilst protecting from the intense sun and heat.
Working closely with structural and electrical-mechanical engineers, Studio Saxe managed to coordinate foundations and services around tree roots in a flexible arraythat allowed trees to keep growing and the buildings to sit very close to the existing vegetation.
Construction
The construction method applied to The Athletic Center is mainly focused on a light-weight steel structure that was prefabricated off site in a controlled environmentand
