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Wildlife

New Recycling Center for Nosara Needs Another Big Push

By Tobias Holler

NYIT architecture students traveled to Nosara during July and August to start construction of a much needed recycling center project they designed for the community. Now they need your help to come back in January to finish it.

One year ago I initiated sLAB Costa Rica, a design-build initiative at the School of Architecture and Design at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) that is lead by my studio, Holler Architecture. Together with a group of very dedicated NYIT architecture students I designed the much needed Nosara Recycling and Education Center. This past rainy season the project made a huge step toward reality.

Funded in part through a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter over 30 NYIT architecture students traveled to Costa Rica during July and August and volunteered on the construction site of this important community project.

During these past months, in collaboration with the Waste and Recycling Association, architect Lucca Spendlingwimmer of Salagnac Arquitectors, and many more generous volunteers in Nosara, we were able to set up the construction site, complete the site grading, concrete foundations and concrete block walls, and even built the first wooden roof truss.

However, the project is far from completed, and much work remains to be done before the building is ready to help with the local waste management problem.

Local workers continue to build the project right now, but without help from the student volunteers, the pace of construction slowed considerably. In order not to loose momentum the students have set up a second Kickstarter campaign to raise $9,000 by December 13. Funds will enable the students to return to Nosara in January to again volunteer on the construction site, and to partially fund a documentary film about the project by German filmmaker Ayana de Vos.

 
student working on site
   
 
gustavo local construction expert
   
 
construction of recycling center

Tobias Holler,AIA, LEED AP, is an assistant professor of architecture at the New York Institute of Technology where he teaches environmental design and technology.

The Building Design

The final design is decidedly modern, but inspired by local passive tropical design strategies. An elongated building form, consisting of three zones (a sorting facility, an open lobby, and support spaces) under a common roof is placed horizontally along the existing slope of the site, minimizing excavation, and impact to the site. An open entry lobby with a wall made out of up-cycled aluminum cans, and a landscaped seating area with views into the recycling area will enable the community to engage with and become knowledgeable in the process of recycling.

The building’s narrow plan is oriented to maximize passive cooling through cross ventilation. The roof geometry is optimized to capture prevailing breezes but protect building from the Papagayos, seasonal gale-force winds. The high ceilings and reflective roofing materials will further reduce heat buildup. The building’s structure is made from local pochote sustainably grown on the project site, and nearby. During the wet season, rainwater will be collected on the large roof, and stored in cisterns, for 100% of the facility’s water needs.


 

More Nature News

Samara Beach Cleanup Gathered 250 Pounds

There was a great turn out in Samara on Saturday, November 24, as more than 50 people gathered for the first beach cleanup organized by CREAR, a nonprofit organization helping kids after school with various educational programs

Water Management in Guanacaste: Heading Towards a Sustainable Future?

A study conducted in Guanacaste by Costa Rican and American universities determined that one of the factors that causes intense water-related conflicts in the province is the friction between communities.

Surviving a Snakebite: Pain that Even Morphine Wouldn’t Kill

For many people, no creature evokes the kind of disgust and horror that snakes do, and this country has an abundance of slithering serpents known to have deadly dentures.

Hunting for Sport Outlawed in Costa Rica

A new law that prohibits hunting for sport could have a small affect on tourism in the area, according to Norma Rodriguez Garro, in charge of protected areas for MINAET in Nicoya.

Intervention at Tempisque River Due to Abundance of Crocodiles

Both in the Great Tempisque Wetland and at the river mouth, populations of crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus), far from diminishing, have tripled in recent years.

Nosara River and Beach Cleanup Resumes in November

FUPPERNO will be going back to work every third Sunday to pick up trash from both Nosara Beach and the mouth of the Nosara River, according to Javier Hernandez, president of the Nosara Fishermen Foundation (FUPPERNO).

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