Käpäcläjui Indigenous Training Center

Text description provided by architect.

Käpäcläjui Training Center is located on the Indian reservation of Tayutic, Turrialba, in the province of Cartago, Costa Rica. It includes a training center and hostel that facilitates interaction between locals and visitors, and develops sustainable community projects in harmony with the environment.

The Hostel project consists of 470 m2 distributed within a 'large linear layout' along its longitudinal axis. It comprises on the first level administrative areas (offices), multipurpose rooms, dining, kitchen, restrooms, computer room, library and warehouses. In the double height of the front part it incorporates a 'mezzanine' as a area that provides temporary shelter.

The vision of the project arises from a series of participatory design workshops and subsequent validation of the proposals. These workshops were key to promoting a sense of ownership in the community when viewing and making decisions. It was the opportunity to understand and 'co-create' areas coherent with the environment and focusing on the needs of the user.

This information is drawn, diagrammed, interpreted and synthesized with the support of community leaders and translators of the local dialect to establish guidelines for the project and programmatic bases.

The opportunities and design findings were multiple; from the qualities that define a comfortable, permeable space, ventilated, in direct contact with the environment and incorporating green areas and gardens.

Moreover the materiality was also decisive and was discussed widely in the appreciation of a light and open 'shelter'; adding steep slopes arising from the tissues of suita, high spaces and local elucidations of the functional.

The technical coordination with the construction company (Xylo group) was also relevant. And their extensive experience with the selected material (wood) to optimize and explore beneficial technical-constructive criteria for the project.

ARCHITECTURE AND SENSORY EXPERIENCE

Regarding the sensory perspective, the project represents a constantly evolving process. From the architectural intentions put into the design project, arguing about lightweight spaces, subtle transitions between interconnected spaces by layers or glazes with a direct connection to the outside.

Then as in every built architecture project, the surprises found reveal visual effects as spaces are crossed. We highlight the overlapping grid of 'petatillos' between different vertical planes transition, creating a visual sense of movement or Moiré effect.

The gradient of intimacy and sense of partial shelter can be perceived between rooms or during the indoor-outdoor circulation through 'veils' on the envelope.

Finally, during the last phase of community ownership is where perhaps the most vivid and spontaneous surprises will arise, product of everyday use and appreciation of a formal-functional expression.