Home » Projects » Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park

Quepos, Quepos, Costa Rica. 2001

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, wooden model of the entrance with the lookout tower behind, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, model of the entrance module with slatted enclosures, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, model seen from above of the bridge as a diagonal duct, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, complete model of the bridge with the tower, a bridge that channels space, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, sketch of the horizontal route and the vertical element under the sun, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, front view of the model of the entrance and the tower, a scale the park can accept, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, model of the wooden duct that lets air and light through, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, model with the shadow of the enclosures on the route, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, model of the lookout tower that turns the view toward the sea, Quepos

Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park, aerial view of the coast and the forest of the protected area, Quepos

West facade of the Access Bridge to Manuel Antonio National Park with the horizontal route and the tower, Quepos

Overview

The entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park, the most visited protected area in Costa Rica, called for a solution that would not compete with the landscape it announces. The project, a joint commission from the UCR and MINAE, grew out of that constraint. It is a bridge that does not cross space but channels it.

The structure is conceived as a duct. Visitors move between timber screens whose texture recalls nineteenth-century Costa Rican coastal architecture, which built with what was at hand and let in air and light without exposure to the weather. The shade of these screens is not incidental. It protects those who walk the entrance under the Pacific sun.

A vertical element interrupts the horizontal flow and projects as a lookout. From there visitors turn their gaze to the sea before entering the protected area. The landmark works by day and by night. It anchors the intervention in the territory without imposing a scale the park cannot accept.

Credits

Architectural Design: Luis Diego Barahona
Model: Jorge Cisneros
Photography: Oscar Abarca (model) and Luis Diego Barahona (aerial)
Area: 340 m²