From ancestral constructions to the "concrete of the future", terms abound to describe timber. Present in the history and horizon of world architecture, the material demonstrates a sustainable possibility and is associated with the coziness and warmth that it provides in the spatial atmosphere. In Brazil, it is no different. Several contemporary works explore the qualities and benefits of its use, including structural bias.
Roundwood, glued laminated, prefabricated. There are many ways to conceive the structure. In the selected examples, the concern with the relationship with the context, the search for timber from sustainable sources, the contrast that its natural texture offers when composed with other materials and the different ways of assembly in each work stand out. See all of them below, accompanied by part of their descriptive memorials.
FFB Convent / Mixtura
"These buildings, although autonomous and recognizable, are ideally and formally united by a large wooden roof which gives them architectural unity. In front of the chapel, in continuity with the large roof, there is a covered square, a meeting place that offers shelter from the sun during the day and allows the church to accommodate more than 500 seated people. Between the sacristy and the administration buildings to the north east stands the library, a translucent polycarbonate’s volume suspended on four cumaru’s wood pillars that at night becomes a luminous lantern that allows its contents to be perceived. (...) To the south-east is the building that houses the cells of the monks and nuns, the only 3-floor building consisting of a precast concrete structure, a very widespread and reliable technology in Salvador. It's surrounded by a wooden exoskeleton that houses the distribution gallery and systems of wooden brise-soleil necessary to avoid overheating of the walls and to guarantee shelter from rainwater."
Administrative Headquarters Forest Foundation Juréia-Itatins / 23 SUL
"The choice for glued laminated timber structure - lightweight prefabrication of renewable source - reduces the weight on foundations and minimizes the generation of difficult to recycle waste, besides guaranteeing control and agility to the constructive process. Following the same concept, we opted for modular partitions in a self-supporting system with laminated panels, standard wooden frames, internal and external facades with laminated panels, alveolar polycarbonate, thermoacoustic roof tiles, and wood cement boards. Large eaves of the roof, natural cross ventilation, and open circulations significantly improve the environmental comfort of the building."
RC House / Miguel Pinto Guimarães Arquitetos Associados
"In shades of green, the organic materials blend with the wood, from the structure to the roof made of eucalyptus tiles. The infinity pool mixes with the blue sky and the sea, highlighting the magnificence of nature."
Café Jeri Hotel / Tadu Arquitetura
"The work focuses on wood as the main constructive element, complemented by the light tones of the walls and the variations between sand and earth tones present in coatings, burnt cement, the Cariri stone floor, light fixtures, and decoration."
Agüé House / Atelier Marko Brajovic
"The triangular module structure of the house is made of treated and painted eucalyptus, the floors and walls are made of the same wood, the light closings are made of braided bamboo, and the finishing of the walls was done with local soil. Except for the glass and the thermoacoustic tile, the construction materials and all the labor are within a 50 km radius of the building, which means more control over the origins and carbon footprint of the construction."
Praia Pavilion / Aberta Arquitetura
"A simple system of wooden poles rises the building from the ground. It addresses a feeling of lightness and fluidity emphasized by its textile envelope. This character enables fast, clean construction and the ability to replicate the building lengthwise in multiple arrangements. Constructive flexibility and structural rationality allow its transposition to any other place at any given time. After the exhibition, the building elements will travel to southern Bahia for reassembly into private seaside accommodation. More than embodied space, it is a proposal of reproducible spatial organization, expanded and set up in many different contexts for different ways of living."
Folhas Sagradas Pavilion / Atelier Daniel Florez
"The proposal it's a poetical umbraculum created by three leaves of Glue Laminated Timber and Bamboo, a pavilion that tries to create his own ecosystem by the dialogue and the respect with the existing ecosystem. (...) The curved G.L.T main structure and the bamboo builds a shadowed and ventilated space below the polycarbonate roof and projects the shadow of a leaf, which appears, moves and disappears like magic with the movements of the clouds, the wind and the sun. (...) The wooden columns on the perimeter of the leaves build a classical seafront portico. They are sculpted with an anthropomorphic shape of 2.3m height, same height as The Caryatid porch of the Erechtheion temple, built as a sanctuary of Poseidon, the god of the ocean, in Athens, Greece in 420 BC. (...) The main materials are GLT timber from fast-growing trees of reforestation areas."
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on February 13, 2023.
