Ec(cont)ologic Tourism | Alejandro Cristiá Batista

To design the future, we need to resolve the current problems first.
We don’t have the right to think in design biotechnological structures, robotic systems facades, or spatial towers, if we are not capable to provide a roof for every single family. If we are not capable to give the nature more resources than which we get from her.
When we talk about accessibility for all, we should also talk about accessibility of low resources people to the different means of production and services, in this punctual case, the tourism.
Architect:  Alejandro Cristiá Batista
Country: Costa Rica 

This project is a response to a real problem:
Despite of that the region of Osa is rich in nature and touristic attractions, this is one of the lowest human development cantons of Costa Rica. On one side are the foreigners who stay in the area and set tourism businesses, and on the other are the many farmers who live from what they produce, and their greater value possession is the land.
For money these farmers have sold huge amounts of land to foreigners, rather than use them to the same business that their buyers enter. Of course, the money for the investment is a problem.

This architectural proposal wants to contribute in tourism development of the area and its people. With a low price hosting architecture, taking advantage of reused materials (containers) and ease of construction and modularity, without losing spatial or formal quality. I try to bring accessibility to the people of rural places to the market that should be of them in first place.

The project attempts to be a self-sufficient prototype that can be used to be hotel cabins, accessible and decent housing, or mobile spaces. Among the design strategies I elevated the main structure from the ground (due of the humidity); I also added a roof with a high enough slope for the easier water evacuation (it rains a lot in the rainy season). I take advantage reusing the rainwater to the water treatment for toilets and sinks, and at the same time to irrigate harvest and fields. As enclosure it was important the use of petatillo (a wooden mesh) to allow cross ventilation, crucial due the high temperatures of this zone.
The Ec(cont)ological projection is a product of the integration between materials obtained from nature and materials produced in the industry (containers), representing the current era, characterized by technological progress that must be closely linked to nature. Metatropical Architecture.