· Tropical Green Building in Costa Rica·

Green Building is a hot topic in the construction industry in many parts of the world, and in the U.S. it’s the fastest growing sector of the market. Thousands of dedicated people make up this visionary movement, working to improve building techniques in developed countries. We are making houses healthier, more easy to maintain, more beautiful, and more energy efficient. While our “techies” have been inventing new gadgets, coatings, and materials to improve our homes, others have been going back to humanity’s roots, re-discovering the ancient wisdom and methods used for thousands of years by our ancestors. Foremost among these in the tropics are Airflow and Shade.

Congratulations, because just by reading this and showing interest in green building, you have joined this movement. Once you learn that you can make your family home more valuable by building green, more healthy by using fewer chemicals, and more beautiful by letting in more light, and do it all without spending more money, why would you go back to the old ways? In Costa Rica we may not have all the latest gadgets and materials that are available in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, but a large portion of green building is simply good design, which can be done anywhere.

Airflow and Shade will be your guide on your journey to a more sustainable future, going over all the basics of tropical green building, and helping you to connect with experts and suppliers in every field of the movement. Together, we are creating a new world, and putting an end to the unsustainable way that we are rapidly poisoning our planet and depleting its resources. What you see on this website is only still the beginning, and we can only imagine the technologies that we’ll use for our homes in the decades to come. But whatever the changes, Airflow and Shade will still be counted as core principles in tropical green building.

Geoff McCabe

November 12, 2008