PLAZA POCHOTE
A reframing of coastal commerce around a public space where occupation is not conditioned by consumption.
LOCATION
Santa Teresa Beach, Cóbano.
Costa Rica
BUILT AREA
1920m2
STATUS
Built
SERVICES
Architecture
SECTOR
Mixed Use
Commercial Plaza
Restaurants & Cafes
Renegotiating boundaries: a new framework for commerce along the coast
Plaza Pochote rethinks commercial architecture in Santa Teresa by responding to a lack of public space in one of Costa Rica’s fastest-growing coastal towns. The design separates two volumes to create an open plaza, its geometry accommodates preserved trees and shaded routes that invite pedestrian use. The project breaks from the town’s pattern of roadside shops, offering a fracture In the volumes where commerce, leisure, and landscape intersect.
The program includes seven retail units, a bank branch, bathrooms, storage, and parking, yet the plaza remains the project’s primary gesture. This outdoor public space offers relief from the dense linear growth of Santa Teresa, inviting locals and visitors to pause, gather, or cross the site without consuming. Above, a rooftop terrace functions as a lookout, extending the plaza vertically and connecting it to ocean views.
The commercial fronts are configured tectonically, with large glass openings, exposed concrete, and laminated wood for the roofing. Service areas including the café kitchen, retail storage, bank offices, and plaza bathrooms are located at the back of the volumes as more solid masses, their stone-clad finish distinguishes them from the lighter commercial fronts.
Pochote Plaza is structured around two guiding principles: a material palette selected for its resilience to sea breeze and coastal weathering, and a plaza conceived as a genuinely public space, open to free and unrestricted occupation.
The architectural expression of the project is defined by rhythm and craft. Laminated local timber structures the roofing, chosen both for its resilience to salty ocean winds and for its warmth as a visible system. Concrete bases and retaining elements stabilize the terrain and contrast the lighter timber canopy. The plaza’s curved benches integrates organic geometry to a more rigid structure that distinguishes the space.
By combining civic life with commerce, Plaza Pochote proposes a typology for Santa Teresa: one where commercial programs and public uses coexist. It is both an economic platform for the project and a social anchor for the town, suggesting that coastal development can integrate community value alongside private investment.
