A-Mangrove Museum with View Tower

Holding and releasing space to experience time.
Rather than treating time as something that is passing, we would rather treat time as something palpable, something sensed, something which holds space or is held by space, something which allows space to become the skin that lets us exist with that which exists, something which allows us to share the experiencing of experience.
Chira Island, Costa Rica and the continued collaboration with A-01 repre- sent an interesting moment for PVAMUs School of Architecture to experi- ence a different type of time. A slower time, a time of urgency, a time of potential, a time with oneself, a time with others. These eight projects take time to explore time and what it means to be.
Mangrove Museum with View Tower
The Mangrove Museum serves as an exhibit for the complex ecosystems supported by this tree species. The museum is composed of a series of modules that spiral upward, starting at the complex root system of the Mangrove and rising up to the canopy created by the tree’s leaves – Jonathan Ortega.
Housing for Health Personnel
HHP is conceived as one cubic volume and sits lightly on the landscape. Overhead planes and volumes extend outward to define the entrances to public and commercial spaces, offering refuge from sun and rain – Bill Price.
Jicaro Artisan Center
The Jicaro Artisan Center hovers lightly above the landscape defining a central core that is inwardly focused while still embracing its surroundings. A group of Jicaro trees become a focal point, framed within the courtyard for study and observation – Lana Howe.
University at a Distance
This building offers a place to study for the youth of Chira. Like this they don’t need to move to the big city, avoiding a culture shock as well as high economic costs. With a university degree they will be able to diversify their income from fishing – Blake Burns.
Floating Market
The market brings fishing and tourism together, exploiting agro-tourism by educating tourists on sustainable angling methods and native fish. At the same time, the building serves as a public fish market where locals can clean and sell their produce – Jordy Matas.
Anclado
The building exists as a floating eatery on the waters surrounding Chira Island. The mobile nature of the building provides it with an ephemeral quality: always present, but never in the same place – Jeremy Mano.
Air
This space for an artist or investigator allows for the re-interpretation of the existing. Materials that are readily available in nature find new life in the work of the artist. The art produced from these materials opens up new unrealized potentials for everyday objects that would otherwise be discarded – Vanessa Hernandez.
Multi-use Center
A place where people from the Chira community can meet for social, edu- cational, or recreational activities. Its primary use will be for the big amount of elderly people living on the island; as a space to gather with their peers for social and recreational activities - Roberto Alas Murga.