Canopy Camp Darien
The project is located in the Darien province in the republic of Panama. The Darien province is in the eastern end of the country bordering with Colombia and the pacific ocean. More than 1/4 of the province is protected forest reserves. This area is located in the heart of central America’s most bio-diverse region.
The “Darien gap” is located here, an extense and large region of undeveloped swampland and humid lowland forests, with no roads (the missing link of the pn-american highway). In this region is easy to spot harpy eagles (Panama’s national bird, and crested eagle as well as a diverse amount of birds).
Do to these carateristics it makes this area very special for birdwatching practice, being this the reason of the interest by our client in locating this project here.
The project is located right next to “filo del tallo hidrological reserve”. By realizing this project the cliente not only was looking to create and offer the birdwatching practice in this formidable and rich in wilderness area but also to create awareness and an example of ecoturism infrastructure and practices that should be developed in this types of envoirment.
Our main goal was to minimize the impact on the environment by using solar power througout the installations, minimizing the constructed area and their impact in the site and surrounding areas, using different ecological metologies as crossventilation for natural ventilacion of the differents buildings, suspended structures to minimize their impact from the ground, opened areas with natural ventilation and lighting, ecological septic system, among others.
The compound has a service facility structure for workers and guides lodges, laundry station, deposits, among other requirements.
the guest area has 8 suites, made of African glamping tents over suspended wooden decks facing the “filo del tallo hidrological reserve” each with it’s own complete bathroom and opened air shower.
The common area and entrance of the project is a two wing builfind that welcomes you to the project opening the view of the entire compound. In one wing the administrative areas are located (lobby and office, kitchen and dinnig space) and in the other wing the resting area welcomes clients to resting and living spaces and a library for reasearch and tour planning.
The project has vast opened areas with birdwatching pathways in the projects gardens and also you can visit inside the filo del tallo reserve.
