Architecture: Built

2011 • Ubatuba, São Paulo - Brazil
Architect

A dwelling in the rainforest by the sea

This project had a particular set of existing conditions that shaped the house design. The land had (still does to this day) no car access, only by foot or sea, and no harbor, not even a pier for docking. All materials had to be transported by boat and wheelbarrow, so all construction items should be able to be partitioned, allowing small loads. The labor had to be local, so the architectural solutions resulted from existing available building skills. And last, the house had to be built within the foundation boundaries of a 50 sqm structure that collapsed many years before.

As for the architectural concept, references helped to shape the wish to establish a house where the porch is the primary room. The beauty and potency of the local flora and fauna should be the closest to its dwellers. All windows and spaces should ensure no birds accidentally hit glass windows when flying by. There should be a fireplace. The design should maintain a certain distance from the ground with a proper roof overhang since the site is known for its extended rainy periods year-round. The windows should remain open under the heavy rainforest rain and allow air circulation.

1.
Dogtrot House
Pamphlet Architecture 9: Rural and Urban House Types, Steven Holl, Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton, 1982
2.
...and the big open place betwixt them was roofed and floored, and sometimes the table was set there in the middle of the day, and it was a cool, comfortable place.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, Charles L. Webster and Co., New York, 1885
3.
Culata Yovai, Uma IdentidadeEnsino de projeto na FAUUSP, Antonio Carlos Barossi, Doctoral Thesis, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, University of São Paulo, 2005

A Room of One's Own is an essay by Virginia Woolf, 1929