{"id":168893,"date":"2025-11-08T01:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T01:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/168893\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T01:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T01:16:08","slug":"the-brutalist-design-of-this-costa-rican-jungle-house-doubles-as-earthquake-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/168893\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brutalist Design of This Costa Rican Jungle House Doubles as Earthquake Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brutalist-style home that cantilevers out from a hillside in Costa Rica is selling for $2.195 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The seller is Swiss photographer John Dessarzin, who previously worked for National Geographic and now primarily shoots landscapes, wildlife and architecture. Dessarzin moved to Costa Rica, from New York in 2003, and built this home, plus its three guest villas, in 2017 in the town of Atenas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all poured concrete, metals and glass\u2014there\u2019s no wood,\u201d he told Mansion Global.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His architectural photography work and exposure to different kinds of high-end homes inspired him to build this property, which was designed by architect Jaime Rouillon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the houses here are all the same, mostly neoclassical, nothing special,\u201d Dessarzin said. \u201cSo, I decided to make a house that\u2019s a little bit different and earthquake-proof because we live in the Ring of Fire.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The home juts out from a hillside, giving it far-reaching views of the surrounding landscape and the Costa Rican Central Valley\u2014a favorite feature of Dessarzin and his wife, Guida. The property borders land that\u2019s protected as a bird sanctuary, meaning no neighbors\u2014the reason Dessarzin decided on the location.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Advertisement – Scroll to Continue<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the peacefulness where we are,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very quiet, you\u2019ll hear only the birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dessarzin wanted a minimalist design for the main house, which has two bedrooms\u2014an upstairs primary suite and a downstairs guest suite\u2014and an office, which Dessarzin used as his studio. The main living spaces on the upper level seamlessly open to the outdoors, where there is a patio and an infinity-edge pool.<\/p>\n

The three guest villas, which Dessarzin rents out on Airbnb include a three-bedroom, two-bathroom villa; a small studio-like villa with an en-suite bathroom; and a casita, which is a \u201ccozy one-bedroom, one-bathroom\u201d near the entrance to the property, according to the listing with Pablo Fernandez of Engel & V\u00f6lkers. He brought the home to the market in mid-October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE: <\/strong>Shoe Designer Sells Martha\u2019s Vineyard Mansion for $37.5 Million, a Record Price for the Massachusetts Island<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the property\u2019s secluded location, it\u2019s only a few miles from the small village of Atenas and about 40 minutes to Costa Rica\u2019s capital, San Jose, where there\u2019s an airport, shopping and hospitals, Dessarzin said. The beach is about an hour drive away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The area attracts a large population of expats, mainly from the U.S., Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, Dessarzin added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eight years after building it, Dessarzin is parting with the property as he no longer wants to be an Airbnb host and is ready to move back to Europe\u2014he and his wife plan to relocate to Portugal, where she\u2019s from.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso,\u201d he said, \u201cCosta Rica has become extremely expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brutalist-style home that cantilevers out from a hillside in Costa Rica is selling for $2.195 million.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[86456,86874,86873,86469,86885,86884,365,362,363,364,79,82632,85833,41573,13642,82648,41570,86458,86471,13782,41564,41565,19786,86460,86473,366,94491,18,117,41571,3334,19,41586,86451,86464,17,11992,96778,96781,40558,1539,41561,96779,9436,44285,1658,86454,86467,1361,96780,86463,87960,86870,86881,26243,384,86474],"class_list":{"0":"post-168893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-amenity-amenities-guest-house","9":"tag-amenity-amenities-panoramic-views","10":"tag-amenity-amenities-pool","11":"tag-amenity_amenities-guest-house","12":"tag-amenity_amenities-panoramic-views","13":"tag-amenity_amenities-pool","14":"tag-arts","15":"tag-arts-and-design","16":"tag-artsanddesign","17":"tag-artsdesign","18":"tag-business","19":"tag-business-consumer-services","20":"tag-ce-exclusion-filter","21":"tag-ce-industry-news-filter","22":"tag-central-america","23":"tag-consumer-services","24":"tag-content-types","25":"tag-content-type-content-type-article","26":"tag-content-type_content-type-article","27":"tag-corporate","28":"tag-corporate-actions","29":"tag-corporate-industrial-news","30":"tag-costa-rica","31":"tag-credited-by-mansion-global","32":"tag-credited_by_mansion_global","33":"tag-design","34":"tag-divestments","35":"tag-eire","36":"tag-entertainment","37":"tag-factiva-filters","38":"tag-general-news","39":"tag-ie","40":"tag-industrial-news","41":"tag-integration-apple-news","42":"tag-integration_apple-news","43":"tag-ireland","44":"tag-latin-america","45":"tag-location-country-costa-rica","46":"tag-location_country-costa-rica","47":"tag-natural-environment","48":"tag-north-america","49":"tag-ownership-changes","50":"tag-photographic-processing","51":"tag-political","52":"tag-political-general-news","53":"tag-property","54":"tag-property-type-property-type-compound","55":"tag-property-type_property-type-compound","56":"tag-real-estate","57":"tag-real-estate-listings","58":"tag-real-estate-property","59":"tag-routine-general-news","60":"tag-subject-subject-new-listings","61":"tag-subject_subject-new-listings","62":"tag-synd","63":"tag-united-states","64":"tag-wsj-pro-mansion-global"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}