INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION A HOUSE IN LUANDA: PATIO AND PAVILION

To achieve sustainability, the project is based on the principles of designing for climatic comfort with low-cost construction, making the most of local materials and the potential of the local community, and adapting technology from the industrialized world in a simple way.
Climatic considerations largely determined the building’s form and materials. The house is arranged in a "C"form that create a small patium. The structure comprises traditional load-bearing walls made from stabilized and compressed earth blocks. Concrete beams run across the width of the ceiling, and steel bars lying across these support a ceiling also of compressed earth blocks. Climatic comfort is also ensured by the overhanging roof, which shades the façades, by the raising of the corrugated metal roof on a steel truss, allowing cooling air to flow freely between the roof and the ceiling, and through the use of earth blocks for the walls, which absorb heat, moderating room temperature.
The roof form is dictated by practical considerations: it is not economically viable to use lifting machinery such as cranes. Instead, the method devised a process whereby common construction steel bars are used to create lightweight trusses, with corrugated metal sheeting laid on top to form the roof. All that is necessary is to teach people how to use a handsaw and a small welding machine.
All the people involved in the project management may be inexperienced and the skills learn will be applied to further extensions and elsewhere.