A client couple who spend most of the year sailing on a sailboat through the Mediterranean islands ask us to design a house in a condominium of a fisherman village of the northeast of Brazil.

Their only conditions were that the budget did not exceed 400.000 rs and that it had to be finished in only 10 months (design+construction).

The program should include an outside living area, laundry, kitchen, and three rooms where three couples can sleep with their respective children.

CASA BAMBU
Praia de Pipa.RN. Brazil 2017

Given the limited time granted for design and construction , and with no time to develop MEP projects , we decide to place all the pipes directly along the façade , covered and hidden by the bamboo in a very straigh forward and economic solution.

The program of the rooms is proposed inside a cubic volume that it is connected by bridges to an outdoor living area paved in Portuguese stone. This living area is protected laterally by two local- stone walls and shaded by a wooden roof. .

The volume of the bedrooms is executed in structural masonry of concrete block, creating vertical ribs with bamboo sticks inbetween inserted in fishbone shape. The bamboo sticks shades the facade, helping the thermal behavior of the building.

The house is oriented to the prevailing winds that crosses the pool water and the vegetation of the gardens to penetrate the bedrooms as a way to fight the powerful tropical heat.

The housing volume is painted in Mediterranean blue, a color that is so familiar to the clients from their sailboat trips.