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Looking out the front of the Hooch
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Natural BuildingNatural building is a focus at Rancho Mastatal. We take pride in designing and building our structures to minimize the impact on our environment and maximize their sustainability. We use local labor and resources - to not only build new edifices but also community.
Building with native and unprocessed materials is an empowering experience. We strive to partially curb the tide of constructing primarily with concrete, a common practice throughout Costa Rica.
We feel that we are one of the leaders in this field in Costa Rica. Please come and join us if you are interested in learning more about green building. What follows are brief descriptions of some of the natural building materials and techniques that we use at the Ranch. |
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A teak floor joist for the new couple's cabin
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BUILDING MATERIALS
Stone and Rocks
We utilize rocks and stones from our local rivers to build and face foundations and for multiple Permaculture applications. It is an abundant and beautiful resource. Working with stones can be a mesmerizing and intensely gratifying experience. “Rock runs” are a common and popular activity at the Ranch and oftentimes include an elongated dip in one of our beautiful waterways.
Straw/Natural Grasses
We collect straw after each rice harvest and gather strong natural grasses from the roadsides and pastures in and around Mastatal. The materials are free and plentiful. Once dried in the sun for a few days, these materials are used in our floors, cob buildings and wattle and daub walls. In cob construction, the straw/grass acts as the rebar would in a concrete structure. It essentially holds everything together. |
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Through the trees, the Hooch
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Bamboo
Bamboo has become one of our favorite building materials over the years. Even though at this point in time we purchase much of the bamboo that we build with from a friend's farm, we have planted a great deal of this magical grass that we will eventually harvest for future construction. Bamboo's versatilty, funcionaility and flexibility are unbelievable. If and when you visit the Ranch, you will see that we use bamboo for just about everything, from posts that hold up a building to pencil holders. We have worked a great deal with Martín Coto, one of Costa Rica’s most well-know bamboo builders. He has endowed us with a number of techniques that we have been using for many years now. Bamboo is strong, sustainable, and an appropriate resource to build with in the Tropics. |
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Little cobbing friends
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Manure
Manure is plentiful and easily procured in Mastatal due to the area’s history in cattle ranching. We use it in our floor mix, in some of our earthen plasters, and in our daub mixes. It’s a wonderful material, readily available, and free or extremely cheap. Many people get a bit squeamish when first presented with the prospect of handling animal shit. Most are won over in a matter of hours after realizing its multitude of uses and benefits and its wonderful soft and squishy consistency. We must admit that the smell can be difficult to eradicate from your hands and toes but a little help from lemon juice and tea tree oil usually gets the job done. And once you pay your dues, you'll better be able to participate in the countless poo jokes that are so common around the house.
Ah, life on the Ranch. |
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Jodie and Nicole applying lime plaster
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TECHNIQUES
Cob
Cob is ancient method of building that utilizes clay, sand and straw or other fibers. The raw materials are mixed thoroughly together, in our case with our dancing feet motivated by a bit of bluegrass or rock and roll, and then applied wet by hand. This is probably our favorite building material. There’s just something about the ease and beauty of cob. It is incredibly sculptural. Anyone working with cob becomes an accomplished artist in a matter of days. We use cob to build ovens, lay floors, and construct houses. Our clay comes from the nearby town of Salitrales, from a friend’s farm (salitre means clay in Spanish). For the fibrous material, we harvest a plentiful and incredibly strong grass that grows along roadsides. Our sand either comes from local rivers or nearby quarries. Cob seems to be making a comeback throughout the world and we are pleased to be leading the charge in Costa Rica.
Wattle and Daub
Wattle and daub traditionally consists of a woven latticework of flexible wooden or bamboo members called wattles that is daubed with a mixture of mud, clay, animal dung and chopped straw. It is normally whitewashed to increase its resistance to rain. This is a technique that we have been incorporating more and more into our buildings. It is a wonderful system for non-structural walls and goes up relatively quickly. We have been using split bamboo for the wattles and a mixture of clay, manure, sand and wild grasses for the daub.
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The outdoor bathroom newly constructed next to La Choza is more than green architecture - it is an inspirational work of art. photo by David Katz
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Lime and Earthen Plasters
With burnt lime (quicklime) purchased from a regional kiln, we make our own lime putty. This is then made into plasters, renders and paints. Lime is making a resounding comeback with natural builders. Roger, after taking a lime plaster course in Wales in 2004, came back to the Ranch brimming with excitement about the possibilities of working with lime. He has spearheaded the movement to incorporate lime into just about every new building project at the Ranch. We have just scraped the tip of the iceberg with this exciting material and plan to integrate this much more into future constructions.
We owe sincere thanks to an incredible number of people who have contributed their time, expertise and energy to make Mastatal one of the true centers in this world for the natural building movement. Our dream of a little Hobbit Village in the middle of the rainforest continues to evolve and we hope to expand our building curriculum in the coming years. We are anxious to learn more about timber framing, rammed earth, light clay, and many other building techniques that we feel are appropriate to the area but just have not had the time to experiment with to date. For upcoming workshops on natural building, please see our Course Calendar. Please come down and check us out and/or attend one of our yearly workshops to learn more about how you can more responsibly build.
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Study of window and surrounding niche work for the main sleeping room at La Choza photo by David Katz
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Natural Building Links
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