FMM 16 House of winds

Cuiabá, Brazil

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FMM 16 House of winds

Cuiabá, Brazil

Firm

estúdio kmmk

Type

Residential › Private House

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2013

SIZE

1000 sqft - 3000 sqft

BUDGET

$100K - 500K

Project Name: FMM16
Project year: 2012
Construction year: 2013
Engineering: MRY Engineering
Location: Cuiaba-MT, Brazil
Type: Single Family House
Area: 233m2

FMM16 is located in Cuiaba City, in the heart of South America, exactly in the middle point of the whole continent, surrounded by the Brazilian “cerrado”, a native vegetation. The project is named - FMM16 House of the Winds - because the main idea is a fully integration between the nature and the dwellers, because the wind and rain will become part of the family, but in a very welcome way. These natural elements will cool the spaces in a natural form, reminding the residents that the mother nature is part of everyone’s life. Another very important issue is that the project reflects deeply the family, a couple that loves the nature.

The balcony has a wonderful view of the forest in front of the plot, where is possible to enjoy everyday the beautiful sunset of this region, one of the most amazing in the planet. This place integrates the wood with all the common rooms of the home. The veranda, typical element of a traditional native dwelling, is where all the social live is concentrated, in a playful mix of voids and full spaces that allows the free circulation of the natural wind that comes from the green area in front. This area is sheltered by the roof with wooden structure and clay tile. The privative sector is a block with a very simple shape where all the bedroom are placed. They are facing south because there is less solar incidence in this side, a very important issue to avoid the heat, that is very extreme in this region all year long.

Energy saving is huge compared to similar buildings at same area, the reduction is about 80%, an astonishing performance for such low budget building. Due the use of natural resources and materials with low cost, a better arrangement of the rooms relative to solar orientation, the use of the architecture itself to capture the natural wind, doubles walls stuffed with cheap insulator on north facade and thermal tiles, all this combination made a very efficient design as final result. There is a great Brazilian architect, Léle, that always endorsed the idea that in the Brazilian Midwest it would be impossible planning a completely passive cooling system. But even geniuses makes mistakes, because the low-tech approach associated to the intelligent design assure that there is no need of air-conditioning, even on the warmest days of summer. Low consumption of natural resources and energy efficiency made the project truly deserves a green label.

FMM16 was developed to become a green architecture sample, but without creating lot of Gray energy during the construction. Would be really interesting to compare the amount of natural resources to achieve similar levels of energy consumptions between this South American house and an European or American one. The sustainability approach in developing countries has lot of good lessons that architects from wealthy nations should discuss more often and in a very deep way.