Lost In Paradise

By Scott Cohen, The Green Scene

This whole backyard is themed after Swiss Family Robinson. A palapa was put up and in the background you can see a gunnite boat. There is a cave underneath to hide treasure, and an actual sand beach, which goes with the putting green in the backyard. A bridge goes across sand to the palapa and doubles as the beach entry to the pool. Images courtesy of Scott Cohen, The Green Scene

Do you ever dream about being stranded on a beautiful deserted island complete with a palapa or two? The Green Scene made that dream come true for a young family by creating a playful backyard with highlights for parents and kids alike. The story they chose was that everyone was out boating and the boat ran aground on some rocks.

During the day, the palapa, thatched with Bali-imported palm, offers cooling shade from the tropical sun. The use of palapas is thousands of years old and they are found in the tropics, Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands. Thatched roofs are found all over the world-and with good reason.

A palapa covers this kitchen area which allows anyone preparing food or fixing drinks to have comfort as well as protection. Faced with cultured stone, the polished concrete counter top/bar creates a place to sit in the sun or work in the shade.

The palapa sits on a sandy beach that doubles as a sand-trap for the backyard's adjacent putting green. Palm trees, boulders and lush tropical plantings complete the setting.

Thatch is also a natural insulator, and air pockets within straw thatch insulate a building. A thatched roof will ensure that a space will be cool in summer and warm in winter. Thatch also has very good resistance to wind damage when applied correctly.

Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes and heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost, local vegetation. By contrast in some developed countries it is now the choice of affluent people who desire a rustic look for their home or who have purchased an originally thatched abode.

This firepit adjacent to the palapa covered seating area is filled with crushed recycled glass and the cushioned conversation area seats 12. The fire pit is underfed from the bottom with fiber optic lighting and faced with cultured stone. The bocce court used crushed oysters and will be a rose covered arbor to produce shade to help maintain the drought tolerant plantings.

This form of ''Old Turning New'' shade canopy has become more and more popular when creating outdoor living areas,. It is easy to breakup backyard space into ''rooms'' using various elevations and strategically placed palapas to give comfortable shaded areas that are perfect for kitchens, firepits, and lounge areas.

Fortunately, the family was able to salvage a lifetime supply of marshmallows before the boat ''sank.'' Now the ''castaways'' can have a series of adventures on their private island paradise straight out of Swiss Family Robinson or Robinson Crusoe. Not only does it guarantee fun for the children, but also a romantic escape for the parents when the little pirates finally go to bed.

To continue the fantasy a boat-shaped-spa on the rocks was fashioned from the ''shipwreck.'' Water inundates the boat and a leak from the ''impact'' sprays into the large free form pool. A ''wooden'' concrete dock and a twenty-foot slide with a cave underneath is perfect for hiding (and finding) buried treasure.

In equatorial countries thatch is the prevalent local material for roofs, and often walls. There are diverse building techniques from the Hawaiian Hale shelter made from the local ti leaves and pili grass of fan palms to the Na Bure Fijian home with layered reed walls and sugar cane leaf roofs and the Kikuyu tribal homes in Kenya.

The tradition of thatching has been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, and numerous descriptions of the materials and methods used in England over the past three centuries survive in archives and early publications.

Thatch has some natural properties that are advantageous to its performance. It is naturally weather-resistant and when properly maintained does not absorb a lot of water. There should not be a significant increase to roof weight due to water retention. A roof pitch of at least 50 degrees allows precipitation to travel quickly down slope so that it runs off the roof before it can penetrate the structure.

Palapas and Thatching: A History

Traditionally, good quality thatching straw can last for more than 45-50 years when applied by a skilled thatcher. A new layer of straw was simply applied over the weathered surface, and this 'spar coating' tradition has created accumulations of thatch over 7-feet thick on very old structures.