House in “Ilha Selvagem Pequena”
Team
Ana Pedro Ferreira Pedro Maria Ribeiro José Gustavo Freitas Vasco Rosa Tomás
We dock in the Selvagem Pequena small port and walk into the plateau. It's not like the other islands.
As we approach the pyramid shape appears, and as we move forward until we get there we witness human absence.
A central element is designed in the middle of this arid, exposed and flat land.
The first line draws a limit.
That limit is the light wooden coverage structure, which protects underneath, from strong solar exposure, winds and nature itself.
This structure is covered by a white canvas coated, which allows the filtered natural light.
Under the coverage we are safe and protected, and it´s where the house begins.
Both interior and exterior spaces of the house are strategically placed.
The house is divided in interior and exterior covered areas that relate with each other in different ways and perspectives.
The common area (kitchen and living room) is separated from the private bedroom area, as if they were night and day areas.
The exterior covered areas are structural elements of the big coverage structure.
These elements design a specific composition, inserted inside a 17x17m square and create the limits between indoors and outdoors.
The house, as a shelter, hosts all its spaces underneath this big structure.
These volumes define interior and exterior. All of them with different functions. The exterior areas under the coverage have ground functions, living and social space functions. However other spaces appear at a superior level. Higher and above these volumes we have deposits of salt water and fresh water, as well as all the support materials. At this level one can also find living spaces, more private and protected against the outside.
The construction has three main stages and the materials are picked with the goal of creating a friendly relationship with the surroundings.
The first this to be built is the light wooden, with umbrella structure that connects everything to a center column.
All the different areas of the house are built in concrete blocks, filled with sand of that same place and this way solving the issues of acoustic and thermal isolation. The ceilings of these boxes would also be build in wood.
The interior pavement would be made of wood and the exterior covered with sand and other materials from the island all compressed.
