São Paulo-based architectural practice Studio MK27 have designed the Bahia House project. The luxury single-storey property can be found in Salvador, Brazil.
According to the architects: “The contemporary Brazilian property is an ecological house. But, not in the technological sense, not in the contemporary sense of the word ‘sustainability’, it does not have the very latest state-of-the-art gadgets that make it possible to optimize electric expenditure.
“The contemporary Brazilian property makes use of the old popular knowledge that has been reinvented and incorporated throughout the history of Brazilian architecture. The house was considered for where it is, for the climate of where it is, for Bahia. And, for this no ‘green’ software was used, no equipment and no calculations were made.
“Bahian homes have clay roofs, a banal material made in a rustic manner, and wooden ceilings. The openings have large panels of wooden Mashrabiyas brought to Brazil by the Portuguese colonial architecture since the first centuries of its occupation of the American territories, and its origin is of an Arabian cultural influence.
“These wooden panels provide vast comfort to the interior. The traditional bahian house uses the northeastern wind blowing in from the sea to organize the floor plan and has cross ventilation in its principal spaces, always making the interior cool and airy.
The contemporary Brazilian property uses all these elements that are traditional to Brazilian houses. These adjustments of the Portuguese house to a tropical climate were always studied and applied by modernism in Brazil. The result in this case is a very pleasant house, where the interior protects from the hot and sunny climate outdoors.”
Images courtesy of Nelson Kon.
