The Country’s Most Award-Winning Architects

Our region is rich in natural wonders.  Lush jungles, breathtaking beaches, amazing wildlife and magnificent sunsets make it the ultimate getaway destination.

Our familiarity with tropical climates and challenging terrain enables us to design environmentally responsible projects that blend beautifully with their surroundings.

SARCO Architects is a design-build architectural firm.  For select projects, we offer a turnkey experience in which we take responsibility for the home from initial concept until the final nail is hammered and the welcome mat placed by the front door.

Our building experience helps us to be better designers.  It forces us to be pragmatic and to think ahead to the construction stage.  We anticipate the technical matters involved in executing our designs.

Ultimately, our goal is to design quality homes that combine architectural beauty with functionality and will provide their owners with many years of happy, low-maintenance living.

Our clients come from all over the world including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia, Panama, Dominican Republic, Dubai, Canada, and multiple locations in The United States.

They have widely diverse desires but share one common desire: to own a modern, luxury vacation home or investment property in a beautiful, tropical location like Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and The Caribbean.

You may not have heard about the term BIM before, and that’s fine, because it is a technical term that is usually only talked about in the architecture industry.  BIM stands for Building Information Modeling, but even this is still a rough term for people outside the industry to grasp. The quick explanation is that BIM is a work philosophy for architecture where an entire project is developed by creating a highly detailed 3D model of the project, to which a high degree of specification and detail is embedded. The drawings created come from this live model, and ensure absolute precision and coordination, which for the owner means efficiency and money saved.

The typical nightmare created in 2D CAD where several drawings show different ways to build the same thing are eliminated.  Here is where your money is wasted by a set of drawings that create problems, uncertainty, and mistakes.  All of this take money to fix once they pop up during construction, and still some things cannot be fully fixed. Today, your home should not be drawn, it should display the real-life conditions and solutions.

Projects fully developed in BIM are clearer, better communicated, better resolved, are much more efficient than those from other design tools.  The owner can fully visualize and understand the project in the design process, the builder can better execute the construction since they can see the project in full detail and they learn to trust the level of detail and development in the design.  Cost projections are better and more complete, since every detail can be fully understood and analyzed.

SARCO Architects is Costa Rica’s leading expert architects in BIM technology. Working exclusively in BIM for 14 years, our firm principal, Roderick Anderson has been a featured speaker at several international conferences in Mexico City, Santiago Chile, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Roderick was a speaker at the World BIM Conference in Munich, Germany on November 2018, and the Costa Rican National Construction Conference 2018.

Communication is a key element to anything in our lives, from ordering your favorite latte at Starbucks, telling your stylist how to cut your hair, and making sure the gardener trimmed the bushes like you wanted.  Design is no different!

Communication’s importance is scaled tenfold in any design and construction project.  Projects involve a team of people to make them happen, and it is essential for everybody to stay current and fully aware of what is going on.  I don’t need to mention what happens as a result of poor communication: things are lost in translation, details are not executed, and things simply turn out wrong.

Our custom web platform provides for tools and apps for clients to access from any computer or any smartphone or mobile device.  Our clients stay in the loop and can comment and provide any feedback at any time, from anywhere around the world.  All information is documented, we eliminate miscommunication or unanswered questions. Every aspect of your project has a designated place online where it can be discussed with team members and referenced as needed in the future.

We speak Spanish and fluent English, so you never have to worry about anything getting lost in translation.  We make extensive use of video conferencing for client calls, project presentation, discussion and review.

At SARCO Architects, in keeping with Costa Rica’s eco-friendly stance, we believe in designing environmentally responsible homes.  We pay careful attention to factors such as a home’s solar orientation, placement of windows, and specification of building materials to minimize future energy costs and reduce a home’s carbon footprint.

We use state-of-the-art technology to measure a design’s energy efficiency before construction begins and make adjustments as needed.