Studio House is a compact two-level residence in Uvit, Costa Rica, that treats the site’s dual-sloped topography as the primary generator. A rammed earth and concrete assembly houses an upstairs living room that removes the façade, folding the ocean horizon and jungle canopy into daily life. More than half of the footprint is outdoor space, distributing habitation across terraces, a 10 m pool, and a rooftop platform in the treetops. A restrained palette is set to weather, while light is used as a material to tune orientation, privacy, and atmosphere.
Studio House Technical Information
- Architects: Formafatal
- Location: Playa Hermosa, Uvita – Bahía Ballena, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
- Gross Area: 115 m2 | 1,238 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2021 – 2025
- Photographs: © BoysPlayNice
We shaped the house by removing what was unnecessary until the living spaces could breathe with the slope, the trees, and the sea. Architecture becomes a filter for climate and light rather than a barrier to the landscape.
– Dagmar Štěpánová
Landscape-Led Form and Siting
The project reads the site’s two-way fall and adopts a plan and section that slip along existing contours rather than resisting them. Platforms step with the terrain to preserve mature root zones, letting vegetation interpenetrate the built footprint and operate as a spatial layer. Toward the access road, the house consolidates into a compact volume, minimizing visual impact and heat gain. As it approaches the slope, it loosens, dissolving the enclosure so that living areas extend into the canopy and the sky.
By removing the principal façade at the upper level, the living front performs as a deep, shaded camera obscura to the ocean prospect. The surrounding vegetation works as a protective mantle that tempers privacy, glare, and wind without severing sensory connection to place. Evapotranspiration, filtered air movement, and foliage-acoustic absorption augment the microclimate, while calibrated openings retain long views across the south-facing slope.
Interior–Exterior Continuum and Circulation
Over half of the footprint is dedicated to exterior program: terraces, a pool, and a rooftop. The upper living space functions as a hybrid room, its boundaries defined by a covered terrace and frameless sliding elements. Rather than a single threshold, a sequence of partial edges manages humidity, sun, and rain, enabling cross ventilation and shaded occupation throughout the day. The absence of bulky frames and the continuity of floor surfaces sustain a legible datum from interior to landscape.
Movement is choreographed as a climb and release. A levitating entry bridge lands at the kitchen island, then the promenade threads outward to a ground-level grill terrace. From there, a long COR-TEN stair drops to the pool terrace, while a second run rises to the rooftop deck among the treetops. Each shift in elevation reframes the horizon and the canopy, aligning bodily movement with changing air, sound, and light.
The project privileges orientation over applied ornament. The 10 m pool extends the interior datum into a horizontal line that catches sky color. At night, circulation culminates on the roof for stargazing; after sunset, the upper living room recedes into shadow while perforated steel elements emit a fine-grained glow, keeping the atmosphere anchored in spatial alignment rather than fixtures.
Program, Section, and Privacy
Public functions occupy the upper platform to capture breezes and the long ocean view. Private rooms step down and retreat behind vegetation, remaining discreet from the approach. Two compact bedrooms and a bathroom open to the garden and pool, so sleeping and bathing occur in immediate proximity to water and exterior air. The bathroom’s direct access to the pool shortens daily routines typical of a tropical climate, reducing wet circulation through interior cores.
A service band tucks along the rear of the lower level with laundry and utilities in windowless zones, freeing the perimeter for openness and quiet operation. Vertical and oblique links bind the section: interior and exterior stairs, together with stepping-stone paths, offer short, direct connections between bathing, swimming, and outdoor living. The result is a tight diagram that preserves privacy while sustaining continuous airflow and short sight lines between uses.
Material and Atmospheric Strategy
A disciplined palette organizes structure and surface. Rammed earth defines the upper perimeter, giving mass, texture, and hygroscopic buffering where the enclosure is most exposed. Cast-in-place concrete forms lower walls, slabs, terraces, and the pool, using the same material, thickened to form furniture such as the four-meter kitchen island, grill counter, and seating. COR-TEN and hot-rolled steel articulate stairs and sliding or cabinet elements, while frameless glass permits full-width openings, and cedar is used at tactile interfaces, such as the rooftop deck and cabinet carcasses.
Pigmented cement coatings unify floors and wet areas, continuing into the pool to preserve color and surface continuity. Materials are intended to weather: earth walls deepen in tone, concrete takes on micro-variations from runoff and salt air, and weathering steel stabilizes into a dark protective layer. Detailing supports this aging process with drip edges, separations between steel and porous surfaces, and robust drainage to avoid staining, allowing patina to register time without compromising performance.
Light is handled as an operative material. Laser-cut steel cabinetry and doors emit patterned illumination after dusk, shifting storage walls into luminous screens. A sunset-oriented corridor captures warm red gold light that reads across cementitious surfaces, while large openings modulate daylight to articulate depth without glare. The atmosphere is built from orientation, shadow, and texture, so that the house communicates more through section and material than through applied finish.
About Formafatal
Formafatal is an internationally recognized architecture and interior design studio founded in 2015 by Czech architect Dagmar Štěpánová. Based between Costa Rica and the Czech Republic, the studio operates globally across residential, commercial, and cultural sectors, with a strong emphasis on interiors, exhibition, and product design. Known for its culturally attuned and environmentally responsive projects, Formafatal blends site-specific sensibility with a minimalist design language. With a deep appreciation for craftsmanship and detail, the studio’s work reflects a philosophy prioritizing sustainability, empathy, and conceptual clarity. Formafatal’s Costa Rican projects, notably Studio House and Art Villas, exemplify its integration of architecture, landscape, and light.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Dagmar Štěpánová and Karel Vančura
- Construction company: Willy Jeferson Céspedes Vargas + local workers
- Realization of screed surfaces: Different Design (Pavel Trousil)
- Metalwork: Meprezuh (Ariel Zúñiga)
- Joinery: Aharel Godínez taller
- Artwork: Josef Achrer Jr. (above sofa)
- Artwork: Lukáš Musil (workspace, reading nook, hallway)
- Artwork: Studio GEOMETR (bedrooms)
