Contacts

Buildings for a Rainforest Research Project

  • Location: Puerto Rico

On the morning of the 20th September 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 5 storm, bringing winds of 160 mph and 45 inches of rain to an island that. The Eye on the Rainforest Sustainable Forestry Project, lay directly in her path.
The future of this project involves land-restoration and the design of buildings to withstand increasing, future climate challenges. The long-term involves continuing forest research, planting trees, seed collection, care, raising, and harvesting of valuable hardwoods for use, and the initiating of conferences, and seminars in sciences. The first phase of this plan is to initiate the construction of several small casitas/bungalows that can be used by volunteers and also to be used as part of an enterprise for conferences, workshops, recreation, and arts.
Director, Thrity Vakil, architect, David Henebry, and engineer, Freddy Dempster, have collaborated with XformVisual studio. The final designs of these casitas have been brought into existence, with emphasis on hurricane proofing, ease of building techniques, availability of materials, and cost. They are designed to be small but large enough to have a double bed with a small living area, a bathroom and a deck to enjoy the mountain views.