Calma Residence, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica

Calma Residence in Costa Rica

30 April 2026

Architecture: Carazo Arquitectura

Location: Playa Guiones, Nosara, Guanacaste, Costa Rica – a renowned, 7-kilometer-long surfing beach

Photos by Cesar Belio

Calma Residence is a house that hides to reveal.

At the heart of Nosara, this residence withdraws into the landscape—drawing light, air, and greenery into every space. Designed around introversion and biophilia, its structure frames the forest from within. A singular roof unifies the house while maintaining its quiet presence under the trees.

Nestled in the tropical canopy of Playa Guiones, this home redefines luxury as quiet intimacy with nature. Its inward-facing volumes create an atmosphere of refuge—where gardens, shade, and silence shape the experience more than walls.

The lot sits between Quebrada Pelada and Quebrada Esperanza, surrounded by mature trees that the design chose to preserve rather than remove. Two private volumes flank a central garden void, allowing the canopy to penetrate the heart of the home.

Exposed concrete slabs and black steel verticals form the structural frame, while warm timber soffits and teak stairs bring tactile warmth to every threshold. Screens and lattices filter equatorial light into shifting patterns across interior surfaces—an architecture that breathes with the hours of the day.

Cross-ventilation replaces mechanical cooling. Local materiality grounds the project in its place. Every decision serves one spatial principle: calm. Not as absence, but as presence—an architecture of retreat where stillness becomes the most generous form of inhabitation.