Guaiume House

Campinas, Brazil

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Casa dos Caseiros

Guaiume House

Campinas, Brazil

Firm

24.7 Arquitetura

Type

Residential › Private House

YEAR

2014

SIZE

3000 sqft - 5000 sqft

BUDGET

$100K - 500K

The site is located in Sousas, one of four districts in the city of Campinas-Sao Paulo, a place with unique characteristics and a provincial air, protected from the Campinas industrialization even though it’s situated only 6 miles from the busy downtown.
The building sits over the highest part of a condo and overlooks the southwest portion of Serra das Cabras, the highest point of Campinas. In order to integrate with the nature of the terrain, the project explores the upper part and proposes the distribution of different levels. The result ensures the creation of four levels with internal distinct uses: garage, services, living, and private areas for the dorms. The optimization of natural resources, such as sun lighting and ventilation guided the design.
The house plan tends to an L shape, enabling greater integration between the ground floor and the courtyard, acting as an outdoor extension of the kitchen and dining room.
On the facade, a cube form with 16-foot overhangs toward the front of the terrain, giving this large volume an interesting sense of lightness. The south facade justifies the double-height grand opening, since that optimizes daylight in a large part of the house.

The house is heated naturally in two ways during winter: thermal insulation and glazed areas located to the east; also, due to its shape and orientation, the house heats up through a "greenhouse effect" and direct solar radiation.
The design refreshes itself naturally in three ways to avoid high temperatures in the summer: First, the glazed south surfaces and solar protections such as brise-soleil protect from direct solar radiation on the east facade. Also, blinds protect up to 90% of solar UV radiation. Secondly, cool winds that pass through shaded areas lower its temperatures. Lastly, natural convection allows hot air flow off the house. Automated upper windows extract the hot air.

The heat generated during the day in winter (from the "greenhouse effect " and direct solar radiation) accumulates on the inner walls and slabs. Thus the home stays warm all night without energy consumption. The cooling generated during the night in summer (from ventilation and natural temperature drop) renews with fresh air. Thus the house remains cool during the day without any energy consumption.

The ventilation of the residence is made continuously and naturally. The orientation and deployment of the house allows the prevailing winds to enter, allowing adequate ventilation in most environments of the house. Well-placed windows allow for a continuous flow to cool off on hot days and on days of high relative humidity.

The search for a more sustainable design leverages natural resources such as the sun (to heat the house), wind (to cool and stabilize the humidity), and rainwater (for garden watering, toilet flushing and external area cleaning).

In this project, the hot water is generated by solar energy collectors, the natural lighting is prevalent in all rooms of the house, required only when there isn't enough natural light and ventilation for cooling off during hot summer months. The main objective of a bioclimatic design is to eliminate the technological devices that provide heating and cooling in a building.

The home ventilates naturally and most of the lighting is natural sunlight, with nicely tree-shaded areas, creating possibilities for leisure, providing a healthy environment, and improving the quality of life for its occupants.