TRES POCHOTES

An opportunity to reimagine the tropical home as a living lineage of Costa Rican architecture

LOCATION
Santiago Hills, Cóbano.
Costa Rica

BUILT AREA
440m2

STATUS
Built

SERVICES
Architecture
Interior Design

SECTOR
Residential
Single-Family Home
Boutique Rental

+ PRESS RELEASE

Rethinking tradition with a modern, localized approach.

3 Pochotes is a single-family residence located in Playa Hermosa de Cóbano, Costa Rica, on a site defined by three imposing pochote trees that inspired the core concept. For architect Mariano Mesalles, co-founder of the studio and client along with his wife Mariela, the project represented both a professional challenge and a personal experience: designing a family home that responds to climate, memory, and life in the tropics, while embodying a contemporary expression of Costa Rican coastal architecture.

The house has a total area of 440 m² distributed across two levels. It includes four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a kitchen, service areas, and generous outdoor social spaces. It’s architectural language and constructive system combines traditional Costa Rican building materials with a tropical sensibility and way of living. A central volume clad in white brick intersects two projected wings defined by local materials and warm tones. This contrast goes beyond the visual and reveals the project’s functional logic, where each material expresses its own role and programmatic condition.

Tres Pochotes House by FAMM Arquitectura — brick and teak wood facade with tropical planting, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica
Tres Pochotes House bedroom by FAMM Arquitectura — timber ceiling and sliding doors opening to a treetop terrace, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica

The materiality is honest and rooted in the local context. The exterior walls are clad in pochote wood, and the ceilings are finished in teak. Structural elements are left in exposed concrete, revealing the material in its purest form. The living room floor, finished with a pigmented cementitious urethane layer, is an homage to the red ocre floors of vintage Costa Rican houses. Together, these details balance tradition, craftsmanship, and a contemporary interpretation of place.

Tres Pochotes House by FAMM Arquitectura — brick and teak volumes set among the trees on a gravel drive, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica
Tres Pochotes House living room by FAMM Arquitectura — open living space with full-height glazing framing the jungle canopy, Costa Rica

“I wanted the house to reflect the architecture of Costa Rica in the 1980s, while still meeting the needs of modern life in the tropics.”

-Mariela Escalante, Client

Tres Pochotes House living area by FAMM Arquitectura — open lounge with thatched ceiling opening onto a jungle-view deck, Costa Rica
Tres Pochotes House nursery by FAMM Arquitectura — crib beside sliding doors opening to a treetop balcony, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica

+ PROJECTS

Tres Pochotes House bathroom by FAMM Arquitectura — stone vanity and full-height window framing a tree, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica

The house is organized around three pochote trees that define the orientation and geometry of the volumes, terraces, and balconies. Wide windows on all façades frame views of the surrounding tree canopies and the tropical landscape, while overhangs and cantilevers create smooth transitions between interior and exterior spaces. Cross ventilation, generous eaves, and natural shade provide passive thermal comfort, reducing the need for artificial cooling systems.