Garzita Costa Rica

There is a landscape and a society; and every intervention, however motivated it may be, changes land and people, imposes upon them a development, assigns them a purpose that remains hidden behind the variety of manifestations it itself produces. What does this mean, then, regarding a project that aims to be sustainable? It means that no aspect, however important it may appear at first sight, may be considered in isolation; nor may the terrain that is to be built upon. Depending on the circumstances, a ruin or a ghetto would arise — hostile to people and remote from life. It also means that those responsible for the project cannot foresee all influences and effects. With all good will, they would lose their way in the cul-de-sac of modernity.

If — and this is the essence of complexity — delimitation and exclusion prove to be an illusion, the production of a condition that we assume will remain unchanged for all time, as we have conceived it, no longer takes precedence. Rather, it is about initiating and sustaining a process that, at certain intervals, calls its own results into question. For such a process nevertheless to lead to meaningful and appropriate solutions, the continuous cooperation of all participants and affected parties is required, coordinated by project management as efficient as it is effective and supported by the knowledge and experience of recognized experts.

Client: Precious Woods

Planning: Rossetti+Wyss Architekten, planning consortium ‘Garzita’, Basler Hofmann Ingenieure und Planer AG, Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten AG, Feddersen & Klostermann AG, Prof Anton Steurer

Text: Thomas Odinga

Graphic: Marie Lusa

Competition: 2008, 2. Prize