Community Center of El Rodeo de Mora
Studio: Fournier_Rojas ARQUITECTOS
Project: Community Center of El Rodeo de Mora
Location: El Rodeo de Mora, Costa Rica
Year: 2016
Project Category: Dreaming
Photo credits: Fernando Alda
The Community Center of El Rodeo de Mora is located in a rural and economically disadvantaged community in the Central Valley of Costa Rica.
We offered the community, on a pro bono basis, architecture that celebrates and dignifies community, something extremely rare in Costa Rica. The small complex consists of a new “community room”, a kitchen, toilets, storage plus a new facility for the soccer teams and bleachers.
The budget was extremely low: US$185,000 to build 750 m2. We built it for $250/m2, a fraction of standard costs, due to its essential design and donations of some materials, including broken ceramic tile for wall and floor finishes, for easier maintenance.
It’s tropical and bioclimatic design, using limited resources to express sense of community, sense of place, sensorial innovation and emergence from its place.
The circular plan shape of the main “community room”, symbolizes “re_Union.” Clay ventilation brick within a reinforced concrete frame, generate a confortable interior environment in a place with high temperatures (+30°C) and high humidity (up to 90 % R.H.).
Revolving and pitched roofs made of thermo-acoustic fibercement, with long overhangs supported by a lightweight steel structure, respond to the local climate and traditions, including chiaroscuro.