MINIBAUTA
An exploration of domesticity through contrast: protective toward the road, open and porous toward the landscape.
LOCATION
Santiago Hills, Cóbano.
Costa Rica
BUILT AREA
451m2
STATUS
Built
SERVICES
Architecture
SECTOR
Residential
Single-Family Home
Boutique Rental
A dialogue with tropical climate, landscape, and daily life.
Minibauta is a single-family residence in Santiago, Cóbano, Costa Rica. Located on a sloping site overlooking the Pacific, the house uses the terrain to organize its spaces across multiple levels. Its layout balances privacy and climate responsiveness while maintaining a strong connection to the landscape and sunset views.
The house extends this balance of privacy and openness through its organization of service spaces. These are consolidated along the street and more exposed sides of the house, forming thickened architectural edges that reduce heat gain and limit unwanted views. In contrast, interior courtyards and carefully placed openings bring light, air, and visual connections into the home. Circulation unfolds through a series of shaded transitions, allowing each level to remain connected to the surrounding landscape.
Material selection reinforces the project’s stereotomic–tectonic contrast: white brick, wooden louvers, natural teak eaves, and exposed metal beams support a language that is both robust and lightweight. A hybrid structure, combining concrete blocks with wood and metal pilotis, supports the terraced condition of the site. Passive performance is addressed through cross-ventilation, interior patios, extended eaves, and vegetation-based shading, allowing the home to maintain thermal comfort while remaining open to the climate that defines Santa Teresa living.
The house is distributed across three levels, structured to separate service functions from primary living spaces while maintaining clear circulation. Program elements are calibrated to tropical daily life: two principal bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms anchor the private zones, while outdoor social areas extend into a generous pool deck and roof-level moments that prioritize openness to air, landscape, and light.
The house operates through two distinct architectural conditions: a protective brick frontage addresses the main road, while the opposite side opens toward the landscape through expansive glazing and carefully framed apertures.
