Benjamin Garcia Saxe set up his own practice in San Jose, Costa Rica in 2004, with the aim of exploring our relationship with the natural environment through architecture. Since then, Studio Saxe has grown into an award-winning international practice made up of a multidisciplinary team, creating buildings and spaces by blending technological innovation with handcrafted techniques to form truly sustainable designs. Founded on the belief that buildings must connect to their landscape – whether a tropical paradise or a concrete jungle – Studio Saxe brings a global attitude to solve local problems. Ideas and techniques from around the world can be harnessed to benefit communities, both at home and abroad. Local traditions and identities are explored and developed, ensuring a process whereby we learn from the past and build for the future.
The dedicated architects and designers at Studio Saxe uncover new design solutions for every project, treating each building as an opportunity to improve methods and approaches, responding to specific places. Working alongside clients and collaborators, the studio continually seeks new forms and functions that blur the boundaries between natural habitats and inhabited space.
LOCATION: United Kingdom, Costa Rica, United States
LEARN MORE: studiosaxe.com
Studio Saxe was commissioned to design a family home perched on the hilltops of the town of Nosara Costa Rica, that would blend and hide within its natural surroundings whilst opening to the dramatic ocean and mountain views.
As an extension to the Gilded Iguana Hotel in the town of Nosara, The Athletic Center was designed as a small village amongst the trees that creates a public space which integrates locals with visitors with similar interests of pursuing an active lifestyle and wellbeing.
Large openings on every level of the Joya Villas make the building seem lightweight and they connect the inhabitants to the surrounding natural environment. A delicate timber staircase appears to float from one floor to the other, suspended by the finest steel cables.
Studio Saxe has completed a boutique hotel and yoga studio set into in tropical landscape of Nosara, Costa Rica. The project is another in a long line of sustainable buildings from the practice that blend contemporary design with local craftsmanship …
The Holdener family bought a beautiful property with two breath-taking views: towards the ocean and into the jungle. We decided to rest the house against the back of the steep hill of the site in order to stabilize the soil and protect the house from falling debris.
The biggest constraint we encountered was that the site was predominantly on a very steep slope, and the view of the ocean was captured only at the mid-upper portion of the site. We saw this not as a negative aspect but rather saw an opportunity of exploring together an architecture that was appropriate for this kind of conditions.
