1/24/2018 Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye House features movable wooden walls

Next story Follow: Search

1 of 16

Movable wooden walls front Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye

House

Alyn Griffiths | 19 August 2016 | Leave a comment

Top architecture stories
Wooden walls can be folded back from the front of this house on Costa Rica's coastline, Most Most
opening up ocean views for the bedrooms and living spaces within (+ slideshow). popular recent

1 10 buildings that represent a

new age of postmodernism

2 Eric Rosen embeds

asymmetrical house into Los
Angeles hillside

3 Cladding at Will Alsop's Chips

apartment block has "non fire
retardant" written on it

4 Sou Fujimoto designs tower

with wavy canopies and
verdant balconies

The Ocean Eye House was designed by San José-based architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe
for a family that purchased a site on the western edge of the Nicoya peninsula, facing
5 Opinion: "550 Madison is
worthy of the most careful
preservation"
straight out towards the Pacific ocean.

AUM's White Snake House is a

curving concrete and glass
residence

Sliding walls move to create

various layouts inside Garden
House by Caspar Schols

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/benjamin-garcia-saxe-ocean-eye-house-costa-rica-coastline-movable-wooden-walls/ 1/7
1/24/2018 Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye House features movable wooden walls

Next story Follow: Search

Slatted marble walls shade Casa

Chaaltun pool deck in Mexico

The interior is designed as a series of interlinked terraces that provide different views
of the landscape as residents move around the house.

Cañas Arquitectos projects steel

and glass Costa Rican home
towards views of San Jose

Extrastudio transforms
Portuguese winery into house
covered with rough pink mortar

Folding screens used to separate rooms from the terraces can be opened up
completely to enhance the connection between the house's two levels.

Subscribe

Subscribe to
our newsletters

Email

"We feel that sometimes contemporary tropical design is either too clinical, too rustic, Sign me up!
or simply unoriginal and bucolic," Garcia Saxe told Dezeen.

Baitasi House of the Future

features moving walls controlled
by a smart TV

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/benjamin-garcia-saxe-ocean-eye-house-costa-rica-coastline-movable-wooden-walls/ 2/7
1/24/2018 Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye House features movable wooden walls

Next story Follow: Search

Related story
Costa Rica residence by Obra
Architects boasts indoor and
outdoor rooms

"We are trying to find ways of interfering within the natural landscape responsibly and
looking forward, whilst learning from the past on how to use common sense to reduce
energy consumption through natural ventilation."

Vertical strips surround white

Barcode House in Austin by
Webber + Studio

The architect nestled the building into the side of a hill to stabilise the earth and
reduce the possibility of falling debris.
The volumes enveloped in the slope accommodate intimate spaces including
bedrooms and bathrooms.

Sliding panels open up facade of

Barcelona house by H
Arquitectes

Heatherwick reveals Zeitz

But as the house extends away from the hillside, the spaces transition into more open
rooms. These spaces are contained within a lightweight steel and timber structure,
MOCAA art galleries in Cape
which is supported by cylindrical columns. Town grain silo

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/benjamin-garcia-saxe-ocean-eye-house-costa-rica-coastline-movable-wooden-walls/ 3/7
1/24/2018 Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye House features movable wooden walls

Next story Follow: Search

"The project has an interesting balance between natural and modern materials, as well
as a spatial configuration that is never really inside or out," Garcia Saxe told Dezeen.

Dezeen Jobs

On the ground floor, an open-plan kitchen and dining space extends out onto a
poolside terrace.
Concrete is used for the flooring of this functional space, as well as for worktops and a
kitchen island.

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/benjamin-garcia-saxe-ocean-eye-house-costa-rica-coastline-movable-wooden-walls/ 4/7
1/24/2018 Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye House features movable wooden walls

Next story Follow: Search

A staircase positioned above a stone-filled opening in the floor ascends to a decked

area that connects the bedrooms on the upper storey.
The decking also provides a perfect spot from which to take in the ocean views and
evening sunsets.

A projecting roof clad with wood on its underside shelters the rooms and provides a
unifying feature that connects all of the spaces.
Transparent polycarbonate tops a light well that extends through the first floor to the
dining area below.

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/benjamin-garcia-saxe-ocean-eye-house-costa-rica-coastline-movable-wooden-walls/ 5/7
1/24/2018 Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye House features movable wooden walls

Next story Follow: Search

Garcia Saxe's previous projects in Costa Rica include a house raised above a forest
floor on stilts.
Photography is by Andres Garcia Lachner.
Read more Architecture Benjamin Garcia Saxe Costa Rica Houses
Moving walls Residential Slideshows

Share and comment More

Architecture
Interiors
Leave a comment Design
Technology

Recommended stories

Slatted timber doors Wooden shutters open to Oak Residence is a CO-AP adds contemporary
unfold along house in reveal Miami house by contemporary house in concrete and glass
Uruguay by Masa Brillhart Architecture suburban Quebec City extension to semi-
Arquitectos detached Sydney home

Polo stables features grassy FHHH Friends arranges Tulum Treehouse by CO- Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
roof for horses to graze and flexible rooms over split LAB Design Office provides creates remote holiday
spectators to sit levels at Grown House a jungle escape retreat in Ontario forest

Recommended movies

The D*Haus Company to build Devon house with a Malibu Hillside pool and terrace frame Pacific Ocean views
swivelling top

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/benjamin-garcia-saxe-ocean-eye-house-costa-rica-coastline-movable-wooden-walls/ 6/7
1/24/2018 Benjamin Garcia Saxe's Ocean Eye House features movable wooden walls

Next story Follow: Search

Benjamin Hubert fills V&A's medieval tapestry room with Europe's best hotels offer experiences, say AHEAD awards
rippling light installation judges

Comments
Visit our comments page | Read our comments policy

0 Comments Dezeen 
1 Login

Sort by Newest
 Recommend ⤤ Share

Start the discussion…

LOG IN WITH
OR SIGN UP WITH DISQUS ?

Name

Be the first to comment.

✉ Subscribe 🔒 Privacy

Highlights
Edible robotics create Zaha Hadid's London "Boris bridge" across Chilean house curves Robotic swans
desserts skyscraper duo English Channel around courtyard Singapore

Magazine Architecture Movies Subscribe

Jobs Interiors Comments Submit a story
Hot List Design Opinion Advertise
Technology Contact

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/19/benjamin-garcia-saxe-ocean-eye-house-costa-rica-coastline-movable-wooden-walls/ 7/7