A Family Home Nestled in the Jungle

This house did not begin with a form. It began with three pochotes, three trees that were already on the site, and instead of cutting those trees down to make room, the house let them guide the organization. That is where the name Casa Tres Pochotes comes from, created by FAM Arquitectura in Playa Hermosa de Cobono, Costa Rica. The house has around 440 square meters and sits on a large site close to the tropical coastal landscape. But the most important detail is not the area. It is that the trees came first. They gave direction, rhythm, and identity to the house. This is the best way to understand everything here. Nature does not appear only as scenery. The three trees work almost like an invisible structure. They organize the terraces and help define where the space is open. The composition starts from a central white brick volume. It works as a core, an articulating piece between two side wings. From this center, the house extends toward the trees, creating different relationships with the garden, the shade, and the landscape. The social areas are placed in the most ventilated and shaded parts. Living room, dining area, kitchen, and terraces appear in continuity, always connected to the tropical climate. The house opens a lot, but not randomly. It opens where there is shade, where the wind passes through, where the vegetation helps protect it. The terraces and verandas are an important part of this experience. They frame the trees and use the shade of the canopies as natural protection. They are not just outdoor areas. They are places to stay between the house and the garden. The bedrooms are more private but still connected to the vegetation. They seek natural light, ventilation, and more controlled views. This way, the house maintains contact with the outside without leaving everything exposed. The white brick core creates contrast with the wood. It makes the composition clearer and helps visually organize the two wings. Exposed concrete appears in beams, columns, and walls, bringing strength and simplicity without completely hiding the structure. On the floor, red pigmented cementitious polyurethane adds warmth to the palette. The color connects with the wood, the concrete, and the natural tones of the site. Black details mark edges, lines, and material joints. The materiality reinforces this connection to the place. On the outside, pochote wood appears, a local wood that is resistant and suitable for the climate. It creates a warm skin and brings the house closer to the very trees that shaped its organization. Teak also appears as an important material. It moves from the exterior soffits to the interior ceilings, creating continuity between outside and inside. This transition makes the house feel less divided, as if the ceiling guides the eye from one space to another. The strength of Casa Tres Pochotes is in the initial decision. The trees were not treated as obstacles. They became a reference. The house positions itself, opens, and protects itself from them. Casa Tres Pochotes is a house about listening to the site before building. Three trees, a central white brick volume, two wooden wings, shaded terraces, exposed concrete, teak, red flooring, and domestic life organized around the landscape. It shows that in a tropical house, nature does not have to stay only around the house. It can come first. It can define the way to arrive, to look, to open, to shade, and to live.