A couple of weeks ago, we featured the winners of the House in Luanda: Patio and Pavilion Competition promoted by the Lisbon Architecture Triennale together with Luanda Triennale. Now, we can have a better look at the winning proposal, designed by the team of Pedro Sousa, Tiago Ferreira, Tiago Coelho, Bárbara Silva, and Madalena Madureira.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
The house as a city, the city as a home Architecture and city aren’t separate themes; they are different manifestations of the same theme. The city isn’t simply the reunion of buildings or houses; it is a big and complex building. When we live in a city like luanda, with about 4.5 million habitants, we belong to a big metropolitan area, but also want to belong to a cozy, autonomous place that is a home.
To build a home is to make places of light and shadow; of silence and noise; of relations and autonomy. Defining a transition between exterior and interior, collective and individual.
When the house is thought as a defining element of a city, we must think of it as a place for people to live accordingly to their climate, culture and necessities. In addition we must also think of the house as a generator element of a functional urban spread, capable of defining streets, squares and finally places of leisure.
Our goal would be to create an architecture that contains diversity and simplicity; an architecture that when lived-in, as the capability of generating the curiosity that leads to the discovery of a series of intimate and unexpected places. A place that withholds the brightness of the blue sky as well as the silent intimacy of the private space.
Explanation The house is defined by six patios that relate to the different functions of a home: kitchen and living-room, bedrooms and restroom. These six patios communicate through a central exterior corridor, protected from the rain.
The result of our research defines a house where the interior has a permanent relation with the exterior. An intimate and protected exterior, where each family member may have privacy and autonomy.
We want the wealth and diversity of our proposal to rest on the wealth of the tipology, space and light, more than on wealth or diversity of materials. For this reason we have chosen one single material for the construction of the house: rammed earth. This is a low-cost, easy to build material, that when associated to architectural decisions that guarantee good transversal ventilation systems and a good solar protection, may have a high thermal capacity.
It is important to define an urban spread that may adapt to different stages of growth and to different types of people. Also it is important to find an urban plan where exterior spaces communicate with their habitants and work as an extension of the private space.
Rammed earth wall construction system Main advantage
By its very nature, earth is one of the best sustainable building materials as it is historically the longest used material by man. It is universally a naturally available product, with a heavy thermal mass and a natural barrier to cold winds and forces of nature including insects and rodents. The material is not rationed or monopolized, is fire proof, and sound proof. Rammed earth housing has been shown to resolve problems with homelessness caused by otherwise high building costs, as well as to help address the ecological dilemma of deforestation and toxic building materials associated with conventional construction methods.
Use of local natural materials Long durability 100% reusable Low cost energy cumsuption on the wall’s construction Self-constructive Low cost construction Hand-made construction Sustainable
