Project: Design and build two architectural spaces (workshop and home). The project aims to design and build an atelier and a house outside of São Paulo. The construction in the city of Ubatuba has as its first objective building the atelier. With the workshop ready and the joinery installed, we propose to build a house located on the same land. The construction of the Fortaleza workshop began in the second half of 2013 and had a deadline of the end of the year 2014. The project was developed by two artists Laila Terra and Renzo Assano, and 80% of the construction was done by them.

 

Concepts that govern the projects:

• Natural lighting

• Natural temperature control

• Dry construction

• Building techniques at our fingertips

• Use of efficient materials that generate less waste and do not pollute the environment

• "Naked house" (exhibition of pure materials, without hiding them with the finish)

• Atelier: partitions of space from the illumination of each environment

• House: space dividers from the relation between color and light

 

Environmental factors:

• Region of Atlantic Forest

• Tropical weather

• High humidity level

• The big number of animals and insects

• Very warm in summer and cold in winter

• Strong winds in winter

 

Proposal of the house and the studio: We designed a project in which the two buildings are made on stilts (raised from the ground). The stilt allows important air circulation under the house, keeping it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The elevation of the buildings also prevents them from receiving moisture from the earth, keeping the house always dry. The third factor contributing to stilt construction in the Ubatuba region is keeping the buildings furthest from forest animals, such as snakes, skunks, and various insects.

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Natural Lighting: The proposal of both the studio and the house was to design two constructions that were not necessary to turn on the lights during the day, always using natural lighting. Both projects use as few walls as possible, keeping almost all of the building open with sliding windows. At the points where we noticed that the lighting was weaker, we designed clear buoys, thus allowing light to enter. However, to avoid entering the heat and UV of the sun, we used Alveolar Polycarbonate, which protects the environment and has thermal qualities.

Structure: We opted for dry construction. Given the buildings' location in a preservation region, we chose a structure that would not generate residues in the earth, in case it occurs using cement. We designed the projects with a steel frame. Steel is an environmentally friendly material, which does not produce waste, without waste, with simple maintenance over time, and mainly reduces construction time considerably. The choice of steel also made it possible for us to be independent in the construction.

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Roof: We propose a new technique, using OSB Home plates, coated with a thermal liquid blanket. The same technique is used in the current constructions of Europe and the United States. Without using the tile, with an almost flat roof and already with the apparent finish, we managed to eliminate the lining, which in the regions of the Atlantic forest serves as animal dwellings, such as possums, bats, birds, and snakes, besides the gutters that are very difficult to control themselves with the clay tiles and difficult to notice with the lining.