House Alpha A1 / Arquitetura Viva

Architects: Arquitetura Viva
Location: Goiânia, Brazil
Author: Luana Lousa
Project Year: 2012
Photographs: Marcus Camargo, Luan Kesley

Structure Project: Dalton Souza e Silva
Foundation Project: Dalton Souza e Silva
Lighting Project: Geovana Moretson
Electrical Installations Project: Orlando Lisita
Hydraulic/Plumbing Project: Gerson Lisita
Interior Design: Arquitetura Viva
Landscaping Project: Arquitetura Viva

Text description provided by the architects. More than a residence, this project is a laboratory, office, and generator of knowledge and permaculture and bioarchitecture practices. Several tests and ecotechnologies are constantly implanted in this house-school. In the first floor is developed the social part of the house. The living room has double ceiling height and zenithal lighting in order to improve the thermal and luminous comfort. This room is directly connected to the balcony, which closes with mineralized wood brises, giving access to the deck and the pool. On the lower floor are the service environments: offices, toy library, and garages.

In this project, the sustainability potential has been explored in order to promote a living, healthy and permacultural architecture. In the almost two thousand square meters of land, functional and edible landscaping has been implanted, irrigated by reused water. On green roofs, irrigation is done with rainwater coming from the reserve tank. The blackwater is treated through a “banana cesspool” system, which creates local microclimate through the banana leaves evapotranspiration.

In the wall seals and internal walls was used adobe masonry (raw earth bricks measuring 20x20x40cm), which guarantees excellent thermal and acoustic insulation, in addition to being a highly biocompatible material. Quarry scrap stones were also used and all the wood of portals, doors, and furniture are demolition timbers and these pieces were created by the architect Luana Lousa at the office joinery, Movelaria Viva. In this project were made sun and wind studies, which summarize the passive lighting and ventilation systems. There is also the use of photovoltaic panels and solar water heating, guaranteeing great energy savings.