“I am interested in the idea of an ‘essential architecture’ in the tropics,” says Panama City–based architect Patrick Dillon, who was born to American parents and raised in the Canal Zone. “And I’ve always looked at blurring the distinction between inside and out—here, with the climate, we can make do with just a roof, as long as we can deal with mosquitos.” His approach comes to life with this elegantly spare house in a remote section of central Panama, where little separates occupants from the symphony of the surrounding forest.
The house in El Copé is owned by Andrew Bovarnick, a Brit who is the United Nations Development Program’s lead natural resource economist, and his Panamanian wife, Priscilla Castro, a lawyer, who became friends with Dillon, spending time at his weekend house in nearby San Lorenzo. The previous owner of this site—which sits along a valley, looking down to a river and out to the mountains—had cut a road and cleared the plot. For years, Dillon and the couple would camp out here, growing increasingly enchanted by its awe-inspiring location. “It was a no-brainer to keep the road and use the flat area as the entry courtyard, wrapping the house around the contours of the hillside,” says Dillon (who was also the architect of record for Frank Gehry’s Biomuseo, RECORD, October 2014).
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