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A Forest for a Moon Dazzler is built with timber cleared from its site and more than 4,000 pieces of threaded bamboo naturally ventilate and shade the building.

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The house designed and built by architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe, A Forest for a Moon Dazzler was made for his mother, Helen Saxe Fernandez. After many years of urban life, Saxe Fernandez wanted to return to the urban lifestyle of her youth. She bought a piece of forested land and lived there initially in a shack she built for herself from scrap wood, corrugated tin and plastic bags.

The elegant and simple house Garcia Saxe built to replace the shack is set on a rectangular concrete pad foundation. It includes two identical living modules positioned either side of a central courtyard, which is open to the sky. The structural frame for each living module is galvanized steel columns and beams with thin steel wire stretched horizontally between them. More than 4,000 pieces of bamboo, each 15 cm long, have been threaded on this wire, creating a cage that provides a secure compound for Mrs Saxe´s belonging without resorting to solid walls. The bamboo provides a degree of privacy while allowing the warm Costa rican coastal breezes to percolate through the space.

– Vitamin Green