Casa C
Sao Vicente, Cape Verde archipelago, is a volcanic island, dry and arid, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where the elements of nature are extreme and dominant, technology and handlabour are basic and not very specialized, life is simple and flows slowly, following the cycles of nature. A foreign customer, adventurous and without budget constraints, decided to build a home that contains his world and is in direct contact with the surrounding nature.
The house was built from an existing one, has an L-shape, result of the direction of the winds, the solar path, and the client's needs, and of course to specific local code that have influenced the design and shape.
The House is made on a volcanic rock base, the L-shaped protect, from the prevailing wind from northeast (Alisei winds), a sandy floored garden facing the sea. The two volumes of the L , respectively, are the living area and the sleeping area. From every corner of the house you can see the sea and the surrounding wild nature, anthropized nature is escluded, giving absolute privacy inside the lot. The facade towards the sea are completely opened and glazed, while the other facades are closed and with few openings designed for cross ventilation and access to the house. On the first floor two wooden volumes are, respectively, a study and a bedroom. The outdoor garden is 2 m highest of the base of a volcanic rock, and consists of a sandy carpet and a rectangular swimming pool which closes the L of the house and allows a circular fruition of the elements of the house. The exterior is concevied like an internal space of the house, an exterior livingroom.
Passive cooling systems, such as the stone walls with 40 cm of thickness, the study of the crossed-ventilation, the solar path, the orientation of the openings. Allows the house to stay fresh throughout the year in a dry and arid climate.
Materials and solutions, are essential not for aesthetic, but for phisical and material needs, the poetry of this house is shown in its relationship between the climatic elements, the materials used, and its inhabitants. A simple beauty, classical, responding to invariable human needs in time and space, with local and sustainable solutions.
