Rancho Mastatal Starboard Cork house: Difference between revisions

Project data

Location	Costa Rica
Status	Deployed
Cost	USD 20,000
Instance of	Alternative building Bamboo construction Wattle and daub construction
OKH Manifest	Download

The Starboard Cork house at Rancho Mastatal was built using various natural building techniques, including mortise and tenon, wattle and daub, earthen plaster, manure schmear, bamboo, and natural finishes. It was constructed with local, student, and volunteer labor, and it took about 2 years to complete. It was completed in 2009, and the final cost was approximately USD $20,000.

Natural Building Techniques[edit | edit source]

Below is a table that highlights many of the natural building components of the Starboard Cork house.

Image	Description
	This is a wall created with an earthen plaster and a lime wash. It is beginning to fade and crack.
	This is a wall created with a manure schmear and a lime wash. It is holding up better than the other earthen plaster walls in the house, and does not have any visible cracks.
	The plasters were applied over a woven bamboo wattle and daub technique that is displayed in the image to the left.
	The Starboard Cork house has a shower made with earthen plasters, which has a passive solar water heater. The water source for Rancho Mastatal is at a relatively high altitude, so the water heater does not need a pump to receive water. The high head lets the water run through a series of small tubes up to the holding tank (seen in blue in the image to the left).
	The wooden patio section was made with tropical cedar and finished with a store bought marine varnish. A store bought varnish was used here, because floors are susceptible to wear from heavy use, and natural varnishes are usually not as strong as store bought ones. Every wood component above the floor, like posts and beams, were varnished with natural oils. The floor in the main section of the house is an earthen floor that was finished with beeswax and linseed oil.
	This is entrance pathway. The frames of the house were built using a mortise and tenon technique that uses no metal nails or screws. Gravel with large stones can be used to make a nice walkway with local materials if they are available.
	This is the front sink. It is a good example of how broken tiles can be used to make aesthetically pleasing and practical structures.

Solar Power[edit | edit source]

The Starboard Cork house has a panel on its roof that powers many of the appliances inside like fans, and light bulbs. The panels are connected to a charge controller, which helps regulate the charge going to the battery, a battery to store charge, and an inverter to convert DC power to AC.

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  Solar panel on roof

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  Charge controller and inverter

Aesthetics[edit | edit source]

At Rancho Matatal aesthetics are important. Aesthetically pleasing structures are pleasant to live in, and it makes techniques like natural building look more enticing and intriguing to learn about and re-create. These are a couple of examples of artwork found in the Starboard Cork house.

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  Stained glass art interpretation of a song by Deivis Garcia, from which the Cork got its name.

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  Natural paints

Page data

Keywords	travel internships, earthen construction, cobb, natural paint, earthen plaster, alternative building, bamboo construction, wattle and daub, wattle, daub, green living, bamboo
SDG	SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities
Authors	Dominick Triola, Justine Cook
License	CC-BY-SA-3.0
Organizations	Rancho Mastatal
Language	English (en)
Related	0 subpages, 9 pages link here
Impact	644 page views
Created	July 31, 2014 by Dominick Triola
Modified	February 28, 2024 by Felipe Schenone
Cite as	Dominick Triola, Justine Cook (2014–2024). "Rancho Mastatal Starboard Cork house". Appropedia. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
API queries	basic, semantic, html, files, more