TAO DESIGN BUILD
Live in Harmony with Nature
Tao Design Build is a full-service Design / Build company based in Nosara, Costa Rica, specializing in natural and sustainable design and construction. We support our clients through every phase of the design and construction process to ensure an efficient, smooth and enjoyable experience and a top-quality finished product.
Architecture
Guanacasita
Casa Tula
Furniture
About
Design / Build
Tao Design Build is a full-service architectural design and construction company, based in Nosara, Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We practice an integrated, comprehensive approach to architectural design and construction, so every detail of the project works together as a unified composition. In many construction projects in Costa Rica, there is a disconnect between the architect and the builder, resulting in costly errors in the construction process and sub-optimal quality.
Our Design / Build method allows us to support our clients from start to finish, and to own responsibility for every stage of the process, ensuring the highest possible quality, and the maximum efficiency of the process. From expert Feng Shui analysis and master planning, to architectural design, construction, landscaping, interior design, and custom furniture, we are committed to the success of your project.
Timber Framing and Natural Construction
Our speciality and our passion is natural construction, especially when it comes to building with wood. Heavy Timber Framing is a traditional method of framing a house with wood in which we precisely cut each timber in the frame to fit together with joinery, in such a way that is specifically designed to resist the structural forces at play.
Historically, timber framing developed simultaneously both in Europe and Asia, with surviving examples over 1000 years old. When executed properly, timber frame buildings can be incredibly durable and long-lasting, as well as being one of the most beautiful and elegant methods of construction available.
Most of our projects are hybrids of modern and traditional construction materials and methods. Every different building material has its own advantages and disadvantages, and are best used in different situations for different reasons. By deeply understanding the underlying properties of the material, we can discover it's ideal use. We also enjoy building with concrete, steel, glass, bamboo, earth, and other materials when appropriate and desired.
Sustainability
We strive to use sustainable materials and practices as much as possible. We believe in sourcing local, renewable, natural building materials, and supporting our local economy. We are experts in seamlessly integrating both modern and traditional solar and sustainable systems and strategies, including solar panels, battery backups, transverters, and sustainable water systems, such as biological grey-water and black-water planters, and natural swimming ponds. By integrating these systems we can deliver highly self-sustainable and off-grid solutions.
Feng Shui
Feng Shui (translated as “wind and water”) is the ancient Chinese art and science of building in harmony with the natural forces around us. By observing and understanding different forms of energy that influence a construction site, such as landforms, solar exposure, and the paths of wind, water, views, and circulation, we can build in harmony with those natural forces in ways that support happy and healthy living, physically, mentally, and energetically.
In the course of his studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Architecture and Design, David had the opportunity to learn from an Architect and Feng Shui master named of Ping Xu, who was one of his professors there. They traveled to China and Japan to study Feng Shui, and traditional architecture and gardens. This knowledge and experience informs everything that we design and build.
Our Values
Quality. Beauty. Integrity.
Attention to Detail. Sustainability. Service.
David Otto Englander
Principal, Lead Designer
Born in 1985, in Denver, Colorado, USA, David spent much of his youth drawing and building with blocks and Legos. As a young man he enjoyed spending time in nature, backpacking, snowboarding, and rock climbing. Always a thrill-seeker, as a teenager he studied the Japanese martial arts of Ninjutsu and Kenjutsu, and worked with a company called Rocky Mountain Stunts, performing stunts for film and television.
Eventually realizing that his true passion lay in the realm of architectural design and construction, David attended the College of Architecture and Design at University of Colorado Boulder. The focus of his study was sustainable design, natural building, and Feng Shui. In the course of his education in Boulder he encountered heavy timber framing, and deeply resonated with this traditional way of building.
After graduating with a degree in Environmental Design, David moved to Costa Rica in 2009 to live and pursue his career in natural design and construction. Shortly after arriving in Costa Rica, David met Olivier Von der Weid, of Gecko Architecture, a Swiss architect living in the beach town of Nosara, Guanacaste. Olivier became David’s mentor and partner in the field of architectural design. David continued his education in timber framing and natural building, studying and working for many years with a top American timber framer in Costa Rica. In 2019 David began constructing the buildings that he designed himself.
Julio Roberto Vargas Rodríguez
Partner, Lead Carpenter
Julio was born in 1983 in Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica. With the Cloud Forest as his playground, Julio grew up immersed in nature. His mother being an artist, and growing up with a Quaker education, creativity and a love for crafts began from a young age, driven by constant inspiration from his natural surroundings. In 2003, while living by the beach in San Juanillo, Guanacaste, and honing in on what his path in life would be, Julio began experimenting with driftwood, creating “functional art” in the form of furniture, with the intention of maintaining the natural shapes of wood in it’s raw form, combined with the craftsmanship of traditional joinery.
In 2007 Julio traveled to Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, where he enrolled in the Fine Woodworking Program at Selkirk College, an intensive program where he learned the proper skills to build furniture the way he intended to, assembled using traditional joinery instead of screws and nails. During this time it became clear to him that he would be a woodworker for the rest of his life. While living in Canada he was exposed to timber framing and was naturally attracted to the this traditional way of carpentry. After completing the Entry Level Carpentry Program at Selkirk, he returned to Costa Rica to begin practicing his art.
In 2011 he set up a Fine Woodworking Shop in Monteverde, where he continued to polish his woodworking skills. Nosara became a second home, where he met David Englander. Julio and David began collaborating on custom fine furniture in 2010, and studied and practiced timber framing together. In 2019 Julio moved to Nosara full-time and joined Tao Design Build as an equal partner, where he leads the carpentry and fine woodworking shop.
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