Natural Building in Costa Rica

The Course Description:

This innovative course in the rainforest of Costa Rica provides students with a unique opportunity to explore the design/build process using earth, straw, cob, stone, site-milled wood, bamboo, and recycled/reused materials. The class will work on a group project at the Rancho Mastatal environmental learning center and a small community project in the village of Mastatal. Students will have the chance to collaborate on a variety of design assignments. The class will survey and discuss different building techniques and work hands-on and in-depth with a featured number of them. A field trip to investigate local vernacular architecture is one highlight of the course. The class is ideal for architecture, environmental studies, and building technology students and professionals as well as those interested in incorporating natural building techniques into their own projects. Food and lodging at Rancho Mastatal is included in the tuition.

The Location:

Rancho Mastatal, an environmental learning and sustainable living center, retreat and lodge located in the last virgin rainforest of Costa Rica's Puriscal County, practices and promotes living responsibly in the tropics, while educating its visitors about the significance and majesty of the world's disappearing tropical forests. The site encompasses 300+ acres of picture-perfect waterfalls, crystal-clear rivers, and impressive trees in the transition zone between very wet and pre-montane rainforest in one of Costa Rica's most undiscovered regions. The property shares a significant border with the splendid La Cangreja Reserve, a protected area providing habitat for a number of endangered animals and flora, and containing some 2,500 plant species and varied fauna such as 2-toed sloths, trogons, scarlet macaws, boa constrictors, toucans, poison-dart frogs, blue morpho butterflies, motmots, white-faced capuchin monkeys, coyotes, and anteaters. Rancho Mastatal maintains 13-kilometers of rainforest trails, connecting to a network of footpaths in La Cangreja.

The hospitable and attractive agricultural community of Mastatal sets this area aside from others in the country, and provides the visitor with a glimpse of "tico" campesino life. The locals invariably spawn the fondest memories for those taking the time to interact with them and are what truly make this corner of Central America a special and exceptional destination for conscientious visitors.

On site and in the community, at Rancho Mastatal they build using natural techniques and local materials, including bamboo and cob, and support the use of renewable energy systems. As part of Rancho Mastatal's ongoing commitment to education and instruction, they organize and sponsor a wide array of workshops ranging from alternative design and construction to Wilderness First Responder Certification, and work with schools in both the United States and Costa Rica in offering customized educational programs on rainforest ecology, Latin culture, and Spanish and English as a second language.

Project and Schedule:

At this point, we do not know what the specific projects for the class will be. In 2003 we built a bamboo picnic pavilion at the village soccer field, built a stone foundation for a cob addition to the Main House, and poured a cob/adobe floor for the back porch. In 2004 we completed the cob addition to the Main House and built some fabulous doors to the new "bodega". Individual students also worked on designs for a composting toilet, solar shower facility, and outdoor kitchen space. This year we will work on a small structure for the community of Mastatal as well as ongoing building projects and demonstrations at Rancho Mastatal itself.

The general structure of the class will include:

breakfast starting around 7:00 am (coffee, tea, bread, yogurt, fruit, etc)

morning check-in to establish plan for the day

morning work session on site

lunch

free time (hikes to the nearby waterfalls and swimming hole-about 10 minutes away-are highly encouraged!)

afternoon work session on site

end-of-day check-in to evaluate progress and plan for the next day

free time between 5-7pm (take a shower, a nap, help make dinner.)

dinner

after-dinner project planning, slide shows, or free time

In addition to the daily schedule, a variety of field trips will include visits to see a recent residential project built by Rancho Mastatal, the indigenous architecture of the Zapatón reservation, local waterfalls and rainforest, and other points of interest. A list of optional activities for free time is available on the RM website ( www.ranchomastatal.com ).

While the specifics of the daily schedule will depend on the design/build projects and the interests and skills of the students, the course will be an intensive introduction to the design/build process, with a focus on designing in harmony with the environment, using natural building materials. Topics covered will include:

•  the collaborative design process

•  basic hand and power tool use

•  building with cob (a mixture of sand, straw, clay and water)

•  bamboo construction

•  stone masonry

*More detailed information about travel, health, things to bring, and other logistics will be provided to students once they register for this course.