“Costa Rica Surf Hotel combines past and present to reflect low-key

atmosphere of beach town”

Overview
Playa Guiones, in the town of Nosara, Costa Rica has long been known by the wider international
community of surfers as a hidden gem and off-grid paradise of white sand beaches and constant
waves. Decades ago the first wooden house in town was built close to the beach-break and in time
this simple structure became the perfect resting place for transient surfers as well as a gathering
venue for music, food, and interaction. The Gilded Iguana was born!

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©
Andres Garcia Lachner
Today Nosara still attracts avid surfers from around the world however it has also become a
destination for yogis, the wellness community, and families looking for healthy fun and adventure.
Everyone shares a common goal to preserve the natural habitat and the low-key unpretentious
essence of the place.
Studio Saxe was commissioned to expand and rethink the entire Gilded Iguana Hotel as a destination
that addresses modern comforts and adapts to the new wave of travelers coming to the area whilst
preserving the rich historical importance of the location.

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© Andres Garcia Lachner

Concept
Together with the owners, we decided to restore and revitalize the existing dilapidated house
structure as a tribute to the memory it holds for locals, travelers, and the town at large. The new
restaurant that now sits there has already become a town favorite for food, concerts, and general
gatherings. The Gilded Iguana beach-house historic restoration is also one of very few samples in
Costa Rica that acknowledges the importance of preservation of traditional tropical architecture.

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© Andres Garcia Lachner

The studio worked hard to complement the existing house with new structures poised around the
property amongst the existing trees and in turn create a heart center framed by a fantastic communal
area-pool for all guests to enjoy. The new Room Buildings along with the Reception and SPA areas
combine elements of the old house such as the simple wooden frames and balconies with typical
hand-made palm thatch “palapas” commonly found on the beach for shade.

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Materplan

Architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe explains: “The Gilded Iguana Hotel is

designed as a harmonious “dialogue” between the tropical identity of the past
and a new toned-down, unpretentious, and timeless tropical modernity that sits
softly in the landscape and reflects the relaxed town atmosphere which most
wish to preserve.”

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© Andres Garcia Lachner
Design
In contrast to typical enclosed and hermetic hotel developments in Latin America, the Reception area
and Restaurant at The Gilded Iguana completely open up to the town of Nosara creating a subtle,
relaxed, and unpretentious atmosphere where anyone can come in. The architecture and interiors
throughout combine simple and unpolished materials such as teak, palm thatch, jute fabric, and
concrete tiles with modern tropical furniture made with local materials and craftsmanship.

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Dorms floor
Room Buildings cater to a varied type of traveler depending on their orientation. Pool Rooms are
ideal for families, Jungle Rooms create a more private experience, and Surfer Rooms promote a more
social interaction amongst travelers. Each room has a large outdoor terrace that brings the outside in
and allows for bedrooms to be connected strongly to the outside. Private gardens are incorporated
into showers and the play of light and shadows constantly fills every space with an acute awareness
of the natural environment.

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© Andres Garcia Lachner

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Section

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 ©
Andres Garcia Lachner
Walking around the Gilded Iguana is always an opportunity to encounter and mingle. The studio
carefully placed seating areas as well as water stations and surfboard racks along the entire property
which in turn provoke interaction amongst guests and a more down-to-earth and authentic experience
amongst travelers.

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 ©
Andres Garcia Lachner
The pool area is truly the heart center for guests at the Gilded Iguana. It is here where the sun and
water come together in a place where adults and children can enjoy the tropical weather, relax, read a
book, or play. The simple geometry and natural pool stone tiles combine perfectly with the old house
and the new structures around the property.

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 ©
Andres Garcia Lachner
Construction
The old house was completely restructured to meet the most current building and safety codes whilst
keeping the essence of its simplicity. A new concrete foundation holds a steel frame that works
together with teak wood to create a simple and highly efficient building method. The new Room
Buildings are made primarily with a durable and low maintenance cinderblock core construction and
then engulfed on the outside with a combined steel and teak wood frame that holds balconies and
terraces that create the main aesthetic of the architecture. The Reception and SPA buildings liberate
longer spans through a steel frame clad in teak wood with simple cement tiles and jute fabric
ceilings.

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 ©
Andres Garcia Lachner
Sustainability
The Gilded Iguana Hotel was conceived through Bioclimatic Design to take advantage of solar
orientation, shade, wind currents, and others to create comfort through passive strategies of
temperature control. Additionally, Studio Saxe worked hard with active sustainable technological
measures such as water recycling through water treatment systems, solar hot water, and energy
harnessing through photovoltaic. Locally resourced materials, such as teak from certified sustainable
farms, and local manual labor was used throughout the project to create a positive impact in the town
of Nosara and generate new jobs for the community.
 Use
Roof and Walls
 Applications
Residential
 Characteristics
Sustainable, efficient, environmentally friendly, pre-built modules
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Modular houses are no longer just a concept, but an increasingly common architectural solution. This
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The Montaña House project is located in a rural area of Valdés, closed to Luarca (Asturias). It is
part of a new system of houses created by the architecture study Baragaño, in collaboration with
ArcelorMittal, known as B Homes.
This 100 square metre house was designed as a second residence and completely adjusted to the
requirements set by its owners, while also compiling with local urban regulations regarding materials
and colours.

By combining natural materials like slate and wood the architects were able to achieve a perfect
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The Efficiency of Modular Design

The house consists of several three-dimensional modules pre-built in a factory during a period of no
more than 4 months. The modular design ensures installation will take no longer than a few days.

Built completely in Madrid and then transported to its final location 600km away, the house is
composed of two different areas. The kitchen, dining and living rooms all form part of a spacious
ground floor, with bedrooms located upstairs.

An example of Sustainability, Design and Efficiency

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 ©
Huapeng Chu

Text description provided by the architects. The Bamboo Craft Village is located in Daoming County,
Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, more than 50 kilometers away from the urban area. The village,
with a strong atmosphere of rural life and close neighborhoods, is a typical representative of local
living environment – Lin Pan, along with vernacular intangible cultural heritage – Bamboo Weaving.
After looking into the current situation and needs in person, the designer of the village, Philip F.
Yuan, attempts to create a rural infrastructure space integrated with culture industry system sensitive
to the ecology, culture, industry and lifestyle of the village.

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© Bian Lin

InBamboo
Actually the Bamboo Craft Village is a positive result of InBamboo project, which was origin from a
traditional Chinese poem, describing the ideal relationship between a house and its rural bamboo
forest surroundings. In the wild naturalness of the village fields is a spiraling tiled house. The
overlapping roof is supported by a system of light steel and wood construction, 70% of which was
completed by means of an optimized pre-fabrication process. Making use of prefabrication allowed
for the architecture, interior and landscape to be completed in the short time of 52 days. The
overlapping serpentine roof naturally defines two interior yards, providing a rich interior experience
between what is inside and what is outside; between what is landscape and what is architecture.
The various functions of the building are gathered into a continuum under this inter-weaving roof.

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© Li Han

The project demonstrates a new definition for how architecture can interact with tradition. It provides
a means for re-examining the dichotomy between the village and the city. With a new rural
architecture industry, pre-fabrication and construction will establish the foundation for a new
definition for rural architecture. It will not only help preserve construction traditions found in the rural
countryside but will also help advance village industry overall. In Bamboo used two months’ time to
pre-fabricate the wood structure and only 52 days for on-site construction is a rural industrialization
experiment. Once the equipped countryside industrialization factories combine advanced fabrication
approaches, like robotic fabrication with the village architecture industry, a new meaningful industrial
development upgrade will take place in the near future.

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© Hua Chai

As the first name card of Bamboo Craft Village, InBamboo is not limited to looking back towards
convention, but also shows an open attitude towards the futures. It has attracted more and more
artists, let’s say new villagers, who are willing to return to the countryside for artistic creation and
reconstruction together with aboriginals, inheriting and carrying forward the characteristics of local
humanities, thus create more, better and more diversified upgrading business. And also because of
InBamboo, the government has full confidence in handing over the transformation and upgrading of
the entire village to Philip F. Yuan and his team.

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© Bian Lin

This time, the vision is no longer confined to an abandoned farmhouse base, but a village full of
vitality. In the meantime of meeting the perfect fantasy of the paradise described in traditional
literature and fine arts, Bamboo Craft Village provides an opportunity for the industry-driven upgrade
experiments under this era.

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 © Bian Lin

Taking InBamboo as a prototype, Philip F. Yuan uses a topological shape-finding technique,

combines different functional requirements of each building to form a variable cross-section tile roof,
and then determines the underlying steel-wood support structure for factory prefabrication. Bamboo
Craft Village magnifies and maximizes the design-construction integration industry system. The
newly built houses are blended into the environment, while so different in terms of experience. They
are utopias in the real world, as well as a romantic presentation after all the rigorous procedures of
science and engineering.

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© Philip F. Yuan

As a featured village named after the local “bamboo weaving” craft, the village will periodically carry
out special events (Arts Festival, construction festivals, etc.), where bamboo weaving, processing,
and consumption are fully displayed and taught. Roads are re-organized into a clear system,
waterways are sorted into a purification system, as well as a countryside landscape. Ecological
agriculture was integrated with landscape and catering. Multi-level public buildings and spaces are
taken into consideration. Also a village guide rule with consideration and sensitivity to the local
character is made to take the overall control.

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© Wei Zang

Dingzhizhu Bamboo Weaving Culture Center

Dingzhizhu Bamboo Weaving Culture Center, located at the village entrance at the mountain foot, is
at the first sight of coming tourists, and plays a role of guidance. Two small farm houses that
originally existed on the site were integrated into a unified streamlined building space. Under this
open and flowing linear roof, there is a mezzanine living space, a high-pass display space and a
semi-outdoor tearoom space. Visitors can enjoy the production, teaching and display of the bamboo
weaving process in the shuttle flow both inside and outside. The building is finished with local grey
tile roof and bamboo weaving façade, with support of timber structure.
The fifth Space
As the village service center, the fifth space is located in the center of the village, with forest trays
and canals in the back, facing the public square and rape field, and equipped with a small parking
lot. It includes toilet, teahouse, public chairs, delivery point, ATM, and play areas for kids. The "X"
shaped plan stretches into the site, providing a bridge for rest and repose, viewing the flowering
fields and village roads below. The building incorporating with the village's unified architectural
language - a curvilinear cross-section roof- is completed with a steel-wood hybrid structure, with the
use of bamboo-molded concrete walls and local traditional grey tile roofs.

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© Huapeng Chu

Tourist Center
The tourist center is close to the most beautiful country road - “Chongqing Road”. As the gateway to
the Village, it is equipped with bus drop-off points and small parking lots. Situated in the natural, wild
rural phenomena, the visitor center located here surrounds the central public square with its
surrounding functional space and is open to the rape fields. The building is finished with a mixture of
brick walls and wooden structure roofs, and the silky ridge line covers the space. Open-ended public
spaces such as an integrated service hall, shops, and exhibition halls are on the first floor, and the
second floor is a relatively private working space.

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© Huapeng Chu

Teenagers Campgrounds
The campgrounds facing the mountain ravine, provide continuous public activity spaces and
scattered individual dwelling unit in the wild mountainous surroundings for every culture experience
team, gradually dissolves and extends into nature. The public activity area is formed by several
blocks of continuous diagonal connections, including multi-functional classrooms, restaurants, and
equipment rooms, etc. The accommodation units are scattered among the forests, erected from the
ground, and connected by the plank road. The building is completed with a prefabricated balsa
structure. The building facade consists of weather-resistant steel panels and highly reflective glass.
All viewing facades are framed with high-reflective glass floor to provide a wide view of forest, while
hiding the building in the environment.

Zhuyi Bed and Breakfast (B&B)

Zhuyi Bed and Breakfast (B&B) is a demonstration project for the Baita Lake Tourist Resort and is a
key step in Chongzhou’s construction of a Chinese featured town. The design strives to make full
use of the natural advantages of the site to create an architectural space that is in harmony with the
natural world, the functional theme, and the structural materials.

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© Huapeng Chu

The guest rooms are located in the former dormitories of Academy of Fine Arts on the hillside behind
InBamboo. They are laid out along the east-west direction facing the village. In combination with the
site environment, 8 individual single-level rooms are compactly scattered in the forest and touch the
ground. Visitors can take a battery car to get to the mountain top and walk inside the houses. The
design respects the original appearance of the base and preserves the rustic charm. The
construction process minimizes damages to the existing vegetation. The rooms are modeled after
traditional buildings, and the dexterous double-curvature roofs are generated from a circular planar
topology echoing the lobby. The two round plans are interlocked with one another. One side is a
living room, and the other side is both a recreational and a living function. It includes a dressing
area, a small bar table, a wardrobe, a sofa, a writing desk, and a TV. Combined with the dimensions
of the flats, functional spaces such as showers and toilets are placed on both ends of the circular
plan. An independent outdoor courtyard is formed in the overlapping area of the two circles.
Expanding the room activity space, people can fully feel the freshness and beauty of nature. It not
only provides space for the reservation of large trees on site, but also meets the need of internal
lighting. The construction was completed with steel nail piles and wood structures. Local traditional
grey tile roofs and bamboo-fabricated facades were used in conjunction with the site environment of
Linpan.

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 ©
Ivan Brodey

Text description provided by the architects. Designed by Oslo-based practice Nordic-Office of

Architecture, the 115,000 sqm expansion to Oslo Airport sets new standards in sustainability. The
competition-winning design, which uses snow as a coolant, has achieved the world’s first BREEAM
‘Excellent’ sustainability rating for an airport building.

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 © Knut
Ramstad

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The expansion doubles the size of the existing terminal building with the addition of a new, 300m
long pier. Nordic continued the timeless architectural expression and rational simplicity of the original
airport – which the practice designed in 1998 - whilst introducing new design elements to enhance
the passenger experience. Nordic also updated the existing train station, which sits at the heart of
the airport enabling 70% of all passengers to access the airport by public transport.
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© Knut
Ramstad

Nordic’s design increases the airport capacity from 19million to an anticipated future capacity of
30miliion, whilst passenger flow was improved with a maximum walking distance of just 450m, far
shorter than most airports.
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© Ivan Brodey

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 Diagram Iso
Domestic International

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© Knut Ramstad

The multi-disciplinary design team applied an holistic approach to sustainability, including the
harvesting of as much on-site energy as possible. Snow from the runways will be collected and
stored during wintertime in an on site depot to be used as coolant during the summer. Natural
materials have been used throughout the building: the new pier is entirely clad in timber sourced
from Scandinavian forests. Recycled steel and special, environmentally friendly, concrete mixed with
volcanic ash has been used throughout. By choosing environmentally friendly materials, the
building’s CO2 emissions were reduced by 35%.

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© Dag Spant

Enhanced levels of insulation mean the project has achieved Passive House level performance
standards. Energy consumption in the new expansion has been cut by more than 50% compared to
the existing terminal.

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Diagram Heating Cooling

Passenger comfort and well-being have been key drivers of the design throughout. Artificial lighting
is designed only as a minimal supplement to high levels of natural daylight, and can be set to reflect
different moods according to weather, season and time of day. The compact layout of the building,
transparency and open spaces enhances visual legibility and wayfinding, providing reassurance and
peace of mind for travellers. A panoramic window at the north end of the pier, a 300-metre long
skylight and curved glazed windows on both sides open up the view to the surrounding landscape
and beyond.

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© Knut Ramstad

Green walls and water features suggestive of Scandinavian forests enhance the experience for
passengers as they move through the terminal. The retail units in duty free areas have been
conceived as organic stone forms associated with Norwegian landscapes.

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 Diagram Iso
Departure

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 Diagram Iso
Arrivals

Gudmund Stokke, Founder and Head of design at Nordic-Office of Architecture, commented: “We
are delighted to have delivered a project which not only develops Oslo Airport’s distinctive
architecture, but one which also provides a greatly enhanced experience for passengers.“

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 © Knut
Ramstad

Dag-Falk Petersen, CEO of AVINOR commented: “Oslo Airport is now more spacious, more efficient
and more comfortable for the passengers. The expansion project was delivered on time and under
budget by the design team.”

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 Oslo
Airport Plan G

Nordic’s team is currently working on ten airport projects in seven different countries. Istanbul New
Airport, is scheduled to open next year and, once completed, will be the largest airport in the world.
Netherlands-based architectural firm KAAN Architecten, in partnership with ABT, Estudio Lamela
and Ineco has been selected to design the new Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Terminal, with the help
of Arnout Meijer Studio, DGMR and Planeground. Soon to be located south of Schiphol Plaza, at
Jan Dellaert Plein, the new 100,500-square-metre terminal will implement futuristic and sustainable
design trends.

© Filippo Bolognese

KAAN Architecten’s terminal design takes into account functionality and urban integration through
architectural clarity and spatial openness. The new terminal will account for 14 million passengers, in
addition to the 50 million the existing airport currently welcomes per year. Proximity to the plaza,
train, and the potential for future expansions were the fundamental drivers for the spatial
organization and facade design by KAAN.

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© Beauty & The Bit

“The most inspiring architectural and planning DNA at Schiphol is that of De Weger and Duintjer’s
1967 Departures Hall, with interior design by Kho Liang Ie Associates, which is characterized by
abundant daylight, simplicity of space, and an impressive spatiality,” the design team says.

The existing Schiphol Airport began as a military airbase nearly 100 years ago. However, now that it
operates as an international airport, connectivity and urban integration are top design priorities.

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© Beauty & The Bit

The use of glass will give passengers a clear understanding of their surroundings in and outside the
terminal. A raised plateau in the heart of the building will house check-in and baggage claim. When
passengers arrive at check-in, they will enter this high-ceiling space with panoramic views of the
entrance hall complemented by overhead latticework that will encase the Dutch sky. Departing
passengers will utilize the prominent reception hall that overlaps the raised plateau. Wood flooring
and greenery placed under light wells will reveal the designs sustainable attributes.

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© Filippo Bolognese

The design team strived for serenity, unity, and the building blocks for future extensions by utilizing
structural modularity and a repetitive rhythm. Columns in the facade and facility areas support the
180-by-150 meter roof, which defines the design with its overhangs and black eaves.

The new terminal is scheduled to be completed by 2023.

News via KAAN Architecten.

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© Beauty & The Bit

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 Architects
Jahn

 Location
Bangkok, Thailand

 Project Year
2006

 Photographs
Rainer Viertlboeck

 Manufacturers
ALPOLIC

 Associate Architect / Engineer

ACT Consultants

 Project Management
TAMS Consultants / Earth Tech

 Structural Concept /Concourse Superstructure/ Facades

Werner Sobek Ingenieure

 Climate and Environmental Concept

Transsolar Energietechnik

 Main Terminal Superstructure

Martin/Martin

 Structural Concrete
John A. Martin & Associates

 Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing

 Flack + Kurtz

 Acoustical Consultant
Blum Laboratorium

 Lighting Art
Yann Kersalé

 Interior Artwork
NT Architects-Planners

 Baggage Consultant
BNP Associates, Inc.

 General Contractor
ITO Joint Venture Italian-Thai Development Takenaka Corporation Obayashi Corporation

More Specs Less Specs

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© Rainer Viertlboeck

Text description provided by the architects. The Suvarnabhumi Airport is constructed on a greenfield
site 24 km east of Bangkok. The first phase, accommodating 45 million annual passengers will
include 56 contact gates and 64 hardstand positions with 563,000 SM of terminal facilities. Planned
maximum capacity after phased expansion will be 120 million annual passengers.
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Floor Plan

The masterplan utilizes a terminal/pier concept that emphasizes passenger circulation over aircraft
circulation.

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© Rainer Viertlboeck

A large roof trellis structure placed over the complex of functionally separate buildings unifies the site
and provides the predominant architectural image as approached from the landside. Designed to
accommodate future growth of the terminal pavilion, the trellis serves an important function by
shading the structures below from direct sunlight, thereby reducing mechanical loads.

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Section 1
Outdoor spaces between the buildings are also shaded by the roof trellis and are important to the
overall concept. Rather than simply comprising empty areas reserved for future expansion, they are
landscaped courtyards, useful for pedestrians and a visual amenity for the passengers in the
terminal above. Cultural artifacts and traditional architectural elements are placed within these
landscaped courtyards, linking the terminal complex to the cultural traditions of Thailand.

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© Rainer Viertlboeck

Integrated Building Design For The Suvarnabhumi Airport:

The planning of the Suvarnabhumi Airport is a masterpiece of interdisciplinary work between

architects and engineers. The complexity and the size of the airport asked for new architectural and
engineering solutions. The goal to create a low-energy-need building and to design a building at the
cutting edge of state-of-the-art technology required a very strict and close cooperation between all
disciplines. The results are convincing, surprising and - sometimes - breath-taking.

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© Rainer Viertlboeck

The roof structure of the Suvarnabhumi Airport has a size of 567m by 210 m in plan and is
comprised of 8 supertruss girders. These girders have a central span of 126 m and two cantilevering
ends, which both have a length of 42 m. The entire roof is supported by 16 frame-type steel
columns. Creating the architectural form by its function, the geometry of the supertruss girder was
determined through the level of the bending moment.

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Detail 1

The glazed Terminal Building is placed in the center below the roof structure. It has a size of 444 m
by 111 m in plan and is comprised of cable facade walls with a height of about 35m. To guarantee
life long high performance and low maintenance costs sunshade louvers, comprised of mill finish
aluminum, are positioned on top of the roof structure. They have been designed to shade the
Terminal Building from direct sunlight still allowing diffuse indirect lighting to enter the Terminal
Building. Because the sunshading louvers have been positioned outside the building envelope, the
absorbed solar heat will be transmitted to the environment by natural ventilation creating an energy
saving ecological solution.

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 ©
Rainer Viertlboeck

With the measurements described, it was possible to control the light and heat transmission creating
a highly transparent building which is matching both highest thermal and visual comfort
requirements.

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Section 2
The concourse enclosure, which will house the holdrooms and passenger transportation means, is
comprised of 5-pin arch truss girders with an alternating system of glazed facades and a translucent
fabric membrane set-up, which is spanned to bridge the 27 m spacing between the glass facades.
The laminated glass of the glass facade will receive a sun protection coating and a ceramic frit of
variable densities. While the fritting is relatively dense at the rooftop to achieve good solar protection
against the high standing sun in Thailand, it decreases gradually towards the lower parts to allow for
good views to the outside.