Building plans...

Those who know us are aware that we built a house in Mozambique, which we designed ourselves. The construction was a long andpainfu lprocess and in the end we kicked out the builder and finished and renovated the house ourselves and with another builder. That house is for sale by the way.

And now we are about to embark on a similar process. We have finally been allowed to open a bank account and have transferred the money needed to pay for the land to Panama. So we are nearly the owners of 8 hectares of Panama and we are now more actively looking for an architect and a builder.

During our visit to Chiriqui (see previous blog) we encountered an American couple that was building a house they designed themselves in Barqueta. They invited us to come and have a look, which we did. We immediately noted that builders here are far better trained that in Mozambique and the quality of the workmanship is a lot higher. This American couple was happy with the Panamenian builder they had contracted and said the construction costs were below 300 USS/m2. Another couple were also building in that area, but they were far less satisfied with their contractor and suggested that they paid a lot more than 300 US$/m2. A cheaper contractor that is also better? Seems to be too good to be true.

Anyway, we now have contact with two Panamenian architects and we showed both of them a photo of the area and gave them some sketches of what we had in mind and asked them to come up with a plan. One of them came to see the place for himself (on our costs) and showed some sketches and interesting variations on what we suggested. Unfortunately, his quote was more than twice as high as what we told him we had budgeted for. So that was a bit of a non-starter. He wanted to do all the plans for the project at once (and get paid for them, of course), while we are looking at a phased approach, in which the length of each phase will be determined by how fast we can refill our pockets after paying for the previous phase. So we are looking for someone else.

The second architect is architect by training, but works for an NGO. So she has not too much time for our project. However, see introduced us to a Panamanian couple, both architects who have developed a system that is both flexible and economical and can make use of recycled materials. The system can be used to build up to four floors. These architects have put their money where there mouth is and live in a house built with this system and have used recycled materials wherever possible. The husband of this team has already been nominated best Panamanian architect once.

The house, or rather houses, they live in three or four units that have been connected, hve a very nice atmosphere. This is difficult to explain and it is also difficult to judge a design from a house that is being lived in. The finishing details can really make or break a house. In this case they have used pieces of broken tiles to make mosaics that give each floor a theme. So the ground floor is adorned with mosaics of the earth, the first floor has mosaics of animals and trees etc. Even the burglar bars are made in the shape of insects, branches and birds. All of this gives the house a special atmosphere that is independent of the actual design, but makes it very attractive.

The architects are also practical. They prefer working with concrete, alumin(i)um and other materials that need little maintenance. The other architect suggested to place a tree in a patio enclosed by the building, but these guys said that this looks good, but requires a lot of work. Trees have a habit of growing roots and branches where they are least welcome, they sway in the wind, dropping leaves and entire branches, damaging your building etc. A beautiful plan if you have enough money to hire a gardener to attend to that tree only.

We like the design, but it needs a few alterations. We want it at least one foot higher because Kees (6’1) had to stoop regularly to avoid hitting his head. We also want the pillars to bee a little bit further apart, to create more space. That probably makes the building slightly more expensive, but also much roomier. We houden iedereen op de hoogte.

Some may have seen the beautiful pink kitchen on our Yahoo photo album. That kitchen belongs to the house we are buying. The house actually belongs to someone else, or rather, to the inheritants of someone else and the process to buy this house might take a while. But as soon as we can occupy the house, we will start repairing and rebuilding it and the kitchen will at least be painted.