Colors of Lil Bu

Little Malibu House at Night

The Little Malibu House, the first of 8 unique custom designed residences at Dos Ceibas in Rincón, PR, is finally nearing completion. This house includes a number of green strategies to reduce its impact on the environment and to make it easier to maintain for its owners.

It's been a group effort. Many thanks to Johnno for his help and for this great photo.

Want to know more? Interested in being a neighbor? It's not too late. Your custom dream home in the tropics awaits... Contact Ali to learn more.

LITTLE MALIBU HOUSE: construction photos

The first house on the Dos Ceibas development located in Rincon, PR is almost complete and the slide show below gives an overview of the construction.

The dominant building method in Puerto Rico is cast in place concrete construction. Our goal for the Little Malibu house was to utilize this construction typology and re-deploy it in a way to create spaces that break with the now so common air-conditioned boxes, re-engaging a dialogue with the openness and passively oriented and cooled structures of a century ago.

Solar Louvers

One of the passive cooling strategies employed by Bigprototype in the Little Malibu House (Rincon, PR) is a system of fixed solar louvers to shade the southern elevation of the house from the intense Caribbean sun. The louvers are made from 6" Ipe wood decking sourced from Maderas 3C's in San Juan, PR.

Here Sarah selects and cuts the wood louvers to size in the soon to be finished garage space.

The support frames were fabricated locally and are made from stainless steel.  Here John attaches the louvers to the brackets.  Ahhhh!  It's cooler already!!!

Almost done!

Caribbean Coralina

This is one of the best local materials we came across in our Puerto Rico building adventure! Coralina or Coral Stone is quarried from multiple locations in the Caribbean - our lot was sourced from our stone supplier in Puerto Rico, but originated from the Dominican Republic. Coralina is a sedimentary rock composed of compressed shells and corals rendering it with some interesting properties.


Coralina is a pale pinkish/orange stone that bleaches out to almost white with intense sun exposure. Due to its composition, many tiny air bubbles are trapped within its layers making this stone an excellent insulator. BigPrototype used the stone on all of the exterior surfaces of the Little Malibu House. On the upper deck the coralina insulates the bedrooms below - using a passive cooling strategy to reduce or eliminate the need for AC.

In addition to having exceptional insulating properties, the surface is wonderful for barefoot traction. The porous finish is not slippery and is the perfect material to use around the saltwater pool. It should, however, be grouted and sealed to maintain a pristine surface - the tiny holes will otherwise trap water and cause mildew.

To find out more or to buy coralina tile, contact Yaniel Merced from Northwest Rustic Tile at 787-882-0520 or go visit them at: Carr 2 KM 118.1, Interior Carr #110, Bo. Ceiba Baja in Aguadilla

Rainwater Harvesting Rincon, Puerto Rico

The tropical climate in the Carribean is ideal for collecting rainwater. With daily afternoon showers, and heavy downpours in the rainy months, clean fresh water is plentiful. Bigprototype designed a rainwater catchment system to take advantage of this resource for the Little Malibu house at Dos Ceibas.

On the upper floor of the house a shade structure doubles as a water funnel to collect fresh rainwater. The rainwater catchment is located high up on the structure to keep the pan clear of dirt and debris. The total area is 128 sqft that gently slopes to a drain at the edge of the catchment.

From the drain the water flows down thru the center of concrete column in a 2" diameter PVC pipe which terminates in a 600 gallon tank. We use this tank to run our toilets throughout the house and to water the landscape. This also provides the opportuity to maintain a local source of freshwater when the municipal supply is down - a frequent occurence in Puerto Rico!

Our system is gravity fed, taking advantage of the topography of our site. A 2" overflow valve is run from the top of our tank to an external drain preventing backups when we have unusually heavy rains.

From Brooklyn, NY to Rincon, PR

BigPrototype rolled into town with a posse this last weekend. Upon arrival, the crew stopped by the Little Malibu House at Dos Ceibas and photographer Jessica Creedon sent us these shots from her visit to Rincon, Puerto Rico.

Like designers John & Sarah, Jessica currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

In her own words, "A few years ago I went back to my roots so to speak, and began working for an architectural photographer, continuing to expand my knowledge of 4x5 cameras and lighting - both in the studio and on location.

I live in Brooklyn now, pursuing my dreams, perfecting my craft and framing life as it comes. I shoot daily with my Nikon D70. You can see my daily life unfold here."

Check out Jesse's impressive body of work by visiting her website.

As Seen in El Coqui

El Coqui of Rincon is the primary print publication in Rincon, Puerto Rico. The March 2009 issue is dedicated to real estate and Publisher and Editor Rhea Maxwell visited Dos Ceibas and the Little Malibu House for her lead story on different approaches to home building in Rincon.

click here for article

Her article describes Dos Ceibas as "a new concept to Rincon" and the Little Malibu House as a "model of 'green efficiency'".

The March El Coqui discusses Puerto Rico Real Estate from a variety of perspectives: from going green and fung shui to stories on local real estate brokers and market conditions. It also includes the Surfrider Foundation's monthly column, an announcement for the Rincon Film Festival, and a report on the Tourism Association of Rincon's annual meeting. And, as usual, it also contains local ads, restaurant information, listings of land for sale, and other real estate listings.

The April issue of El Coqui of Rincon will be dedicated to environmental issues and community efforts in and around Rincon, Puerto Rico.

First Green Roof in Rincon Puerto Rico!

Green roofs in the Caribbean offer many benefits to home owners. The plant medium absorb the radiant heat of the sun insulating the living spaces below keeping them cool. They also help with storm water management by reducing runoff, soaking in rainwater and mitigating erosion.

Bigprototype used a green roof at the Little Malibu House in Rincon, PR for several reasons. The house can be seen from all of the other lots in the Dos Ceibas development; it was an important concept for the vision of the neighborhood. We decided to use the strategy of passive cooling instead of air conditioning to reduce energy costs. More importantly, Harrison gets to tee off his biodegradable golf balls!

February 4, 2009 Progress Shots

Almost there........here are some progress shots of the Little Malibu House in Rincon, PR from February 4, 2009. The home includes a number of green design strategies. Note the water catchment and wood solar shades in the top image. The bottom image shows the North elevation: top floor contains main entry and kitchen/dining space; middle floor contains living room and two bedroom suites; ground floor has one bedroom suite, outdoor living room and bunk room.

Getting Close

A view of the Little Malibu House at Dos Ceibas in Rincón, PR. This home features a green roof, passive cooling, passive solar, water catchement and a salt water pool. Little Malibu House will be completed this winter. Thanks to Johnno for the photo.