Designed by Nature, Pura Vida Style

The inviting guest areas at Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica cascade along hillsides and hug the Pacific Ocean, curving and dipping in sinuous shapes constructed from richly textured natural local materials that evoke the region’s indigenous tropical flora and fauna and blend with the landscape.

Through his exacting artist’s eye, Costa Rican native architect Ronald Zurcher created a resort with an enlightened sense of place that honours the armadillo, the iguana, the leatherback sea turtle, scores of butterflies and birds, and their native habitat, so that all of the spaces merge rather than compete with nature.

He celebrates the region’s pre-Columbian culture with shapes and colours, including v-shapes of native vases, small tiles of gold leaf that reflect the afternoon sun and jade tones to reference the area’s green season. Soaring rafters mimic the shapes of the Guanacaste tree; twisted mangrove root-inspired railings frame private suite patios and plunge pools. The humble turtle lends its round shell shape to many low-lying buildings, while the armadillo family colony was the inspiration for the collections of a series of arched roofs for buildings on higher ground.

Even the Resort roads and pathways were designed to preserve traditional animal migration routes, constructed after careful monitoring with the creation of animal tunnels to permit safe passage when needed.

Here is one of the world’s best locations to commune with nature, a restorative place with a remarkably light footprint that respects its fragile ecosystem by design.