Environmentally-conscious architects from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) are looking to finish their dream project in Costa Rica, and they are turning to social media and crowdfunding to see it come to life.

The name of the project is “sLAB Costa Rica: Building a Recycling Center for Nosara”, and it is one of the current listings at KickStarter, a crowdfunding web site that is billed as the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects.

The green architects traveled to Playa Nosara in Guanacaste back in January as part of a “design-and-build” challenge presented by NYIT. The initiative was created by Tobias Holler, Assistant Professor of Architecture at NYIT. Students were challenged to find a long-term solution to the severe municipal solid waste management problem at Nosara. The once-pristine beach has been threatened by an accumulation of trash as a result of an explosive population growth in this former farming and fishing village, which has been turned into a magnet for tourism and a prime retirement destination for foreigners.

The trash problem in Playa Nosara is the result of many years of uneven development. Major clean-ups along the beach have been performed in the past, organized by the International Coastal Cleanup initiative of the Ocean Conservancy non-profit. Tons of waste have been collected by volunteers thanks to these efforts, but the unregulated dumping in Nosara has reached troublesome proportions. According to Professor Holler:

“250 tons daily are dumped illegally into rivers and tropical forests, polluting ground water, threatening the health of local communities and destroying a fragile ecosystem, whose well-being is of critical importance not only locally but to the planet.”

The sLAB project stands for “student-led architecture build.” The students looked at the massive trash problem in Nosara and came up with a few ideas that were subject to voting among peers and the local community on the Facebook social network. The projects were centered on sustainable waste management and recycling and developed in close collaboration with groups such as the Nosara Civic Association, The Nosara Waste and Recycling Association, Sustainable Nosara, and others.

The NYIT students and the community of Nosara have been very busy, according to the details provided on the KickStarter page for the project:

There is tremendous momentum and support for the initiative in the local community. The land to build has been donated by the Nosara Civic Association, local construction professionals are offering their services pro-bono and funding is available to begin construction, with more fund-raising for construction materials currently underway.

We visited two existing recycling centers in San Jose, documented the project site, and reviewed their designs with Salagnac Architectos, the local architects for the project. We also presented the project at Veritas University in San Jose, who serves as the local academic partner for the project.

The sLAB project has almost reached its funding goal on KickStarter. They intend to use the funds to finance the return of the students to Nosara in July, and to allow German filmmaker Ayana de Vos to make a documentary film about the project. The film aims to:

“[…] educate a large audience not only about this important initiative, but more generally about issues of waste management in the tropics, enabling this project and the community of Nosara to become an example for sustainable recycling practices for other communities in Costa Rica and other tropical countries to follow.”

Learn more about other interesting Tico projects funded by KickStarter and written on the pages of The Costa Rica Star:

• La Nación Presents the News Makers of 2011
• 2011 was a breakout year for social media in Costa Rica
• Venture Capital and Angel Investments in Costa Rica