RIO CHANTE
Rio Chante – the Historic Rockwell House – is one of Monteverde’s oldest and most emblematic cultural spaces. Built in the early–mid 20th century, it was part of the original Quaker settlement and served as a key hub for community life, environmental education, and local organizing.
Today, Rio Chante functions as a community cultural center dedicated to preserving local memory, protecting its natural heritage, and offering spaces for art, dialogue, and gathering.
COMMUNITY PROJECTS 2025
Four Benches with Sustainable Materials
As part of a collaboration through the Instituto Monteverde, the students worked in teams with Rio Chante to design innovative prototypes of community benches. The goal was to create models that can be replicated throughout the canton—combining creativity, sustainability, and functionality to strengthen public spaces and foster a sense of community.
The ideas developed by the teams align with Rio Chante’s vision of promoting public infrastructure that is inclusive, practical, and rooted in the territory.
Banca del Rio (River Bench)
MATERIALS: Cob, recycled slate stones, old tree stumps, concrete, recycled ceramic tiles and mirror.
INSPIRATION: We chose this spot near the river so that visitors could relax and meditate while listening to the sounds of moving water. The location, and depiction of a river created from recycled ceramic tiles on the seat of the bench, references Monteverde's complex connections with water and the ways it nourishes both human and more-than-human.
Banca Frijol (Bean Bench)
MATERIALS: Concrete; cobb; sand; rocks found on site; ceramics found on site; found wood; found steel roofing panels.
INSPIRATION: The bench takes its bean-like shape from one of the foods most present during our time in Costa Rica, a small symbol of the shared meals, everyday life, and sense of community experienced there. Its curved form creates a place for gathering, resting, and conversation.
The design also draws from local materials and architecture, using elements found on site and echoing the wavy lines of the region’s steel roofing. Those undulating forms reference the constant presence of rain and water, as well as the shelters that protect us from it. The bench becomes an acknowledgment of the environment, community and rhythm that shape this place.
Banca Entrelazada (Bench of Entanglements)
MATERIALS: Recycled wood, wire grating, ceramics, cement, flagstones, and local Epiphytes.
INSPIRATION: Epiphytes are canopy-dwelling plants, these plants and lichens collect nitrogen and nutrients from rain, mist, and dust, then disperse those nutrients throughout the ecosystem. I was surprised to learn that soil in the rainforest floor is actually quite poor and in fact most of the nutrients that the ecosystem needs are collected in branch-dwelling mosses and arboreal soil. This arboreal soil also provides a habitat for a huge diversity of insects and fungi.
During our time in Monteverde we were struck with how the health and diversity of the rainforest was entangled with the health and diversity of the Monteverde/Santa Helena community, its history and development. This reminded us of the mutualistic, symbiotic relationships the epiphytes have with the trees, and decided to honour this thriving and unique relationship in our “Banca Entrelazada”.
Banca Ecos del bosque (Echoes of the Forest Bench)
MATERIALS: Rock, adobe (local clay, dead grass, water), wood and local plants.
INSPIRATION: Our work was about creating a space to interact with the environment and each other. We wanted to honor the space that existed, the flora, the earth, the stone and fossilize it in time. Using materials found on site and forming a space intertwined in conversation, we left impressions but carry many with us as well.