1. LOCALIZATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SITE 

The existing house is in a predominantly habitation area, next to the Thames River. It can be characterized as being an excellent zone, with good car access and public transportations. The parcel where the house is implanted has about 985m2. 

The existing construction is made of brick walls and wooden floors and roofs. It’s a characteristic construction with traditional materials.

2. THE SOLUTION

The main objective of the project is to restore the existing building and make a small extension to the rear garden, respecting the existing trees, and maintaining as much as possible the old house.

3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONSTRUCTION 

In this restoration we searched for continuity in the interior spaces and in the existing functional areas. The idea was to provide generous areas and to usufruct in the totality the qualities of the existing house. 

The project develops in all the floors, with the following distribution: Basement – a playroom, a home cinema room, toilets and stairs (to the garden and to ground floor); Ground floor – the entrance of the habitation, with a small hall and corridor, where is located the main stairs to access the superior floors, and we have the accesses for the library, a living room, sanitary installation and an entrance of service with a space for closets; 1^st floor – with a gallery with glass floor, is were is situated the private area of the habitation, with three bedrooms, having one of them a privative toilet and closet, and still a toilet for use of the other rooms; 2nd floor (attic) there are four bedrooms and two toilets. 

The facades were studied to keep the original look except in the rear where the new extension is with a modern language.

4. CONSTRUCTIVE OPTIONS 

In a general way, the exterior walls of the building will be kept, proceeding only to its physical recovery, towed and painted. 

The exterior wooden frames will be the same to the existing ones, and will be painted, keeping the original drawing. The interior doors and panels will be wooden and painted.

The interior separation walls will be in brick masonry and painted. The ceilings will plaster painted.

The sanitary installations and kitchen walls will be in washable material. 

In all project we had the concern to characterize the spaces in accordance with the necessities of the future owners, keeping the essential structure of the building, given its integration in an area of patrimonial interest.

The intervention presents itself as an opportunity to encourage urban revitalisation, as a sign of change and a motto for the start of a wider operation.

The conception of this space as a regeneration generating pole and centre of attractiveness and connection between areas with relevant potential foresees the restructuring of this area with a unifying green structure and the creation of a prominent housing unit in the region.

The realization of a housing structure under a continuous green system will enable the structuring of the territory and the reinforcement of social and urban cohesion, as well as the implementation of notorious urban dynamics, important for the development of the city.

In this sense, this project has a scale, which in itself surpasses the domain of the intervention area, resulting from a global, differentiating and unique vision in the region.

The intervention strategy contemplates:

– Housing. It is planned to build three residential buildings, with a maximum of 12 floors, in a volumetric set of 8 and 12 and a total of approximately 334 dwellings, the design of which should be as flexible as possible and can be adapted to the socio-cultural economic situation of the market, allowing for functional versatility so as to become a reference element in the current context and evolution of the city of Luanda.

– Trade and services. The three buildings are expected to be occupied on the ground floor, in contact with the green space, and the mezzanine floor, with commerce and services, providing the whole enterprise with great dynamics, attractiveness and versatility in terms of occupation proposals. The solution includes a total of 12 spaces, all with one mezzanine floor, and diversified areas.

– Green Zone. It is proposed the creation of a surrounding area of predominant green, singular and unique, with high environmental and landscape quality and differentiation. It works as a platform that shapes the terrain. The limits of the land will have walls 60cm high and up to 2m in green fence. The use of native species is privileged. All the exterior green space to be and leisure will be the target of a more specific landscape study.

– Parking space. Below the green platform, which is the privileged belvedere overlooking the sea, the various levels of parking are distributed below and already underground to support the whole development, as well as the users of the beach and all the green space that is intended as a reference. This underground car park is subdivided in three platforms of two floors below ground each, thus covering the whole intervention area.

It is an unusual structure: something in the middle of a new urban park and  enormous broadsides with a world of imaginative objects.

Between land-art and architectural design, we propose a sensual space, new spatial experiences for the emotional fields. This crystal landmark associates crystal clear sound as the motive for the design and as the structural and image base for the creation of the form. The mother earth is the theme, the essential base of creation. The rupture, the birth of a form that comes from within, as it happens with music.

The strategy of the Crystal Park is an idea of uncovering the land with buildings and volumes. We want to fuse construction and nature into one mass! In a way, it will give men the desire to return back to the earth, and essence within nature’s geometry. The pure geometry of nature coincides with a firm structural base for architecture and construction.

The structure is based on fractals and “simple mathematical systems” studied by the CNLL team and the Mathematical Research Group of Oporto University, and is derived from the molecular structure of crystal quartz. The crystal quartz can vibrate and oscilate of a regular form and have an internal molecular structure in spiral. The quartz goblets have only sonorous properties, they produce a sinusoidal wave of pure sound that expands up to one kilometre of distance and that it can take some minutes to extinguish itself.

Eight main volumes with sloped roofs in different directions are proposed, containing the classrooms, spatially articulated by a circulation ring/corridor, with enough transparency to visually incorporate and provide a special continuity between the interior and the central courtyard, where the open amphitheatre is located. Apart from these volumes with identical dimensioning, there is another with larger proportions containing the indoor gymnasium. In each of these volumes’ facades there are large glass windows, allowing the classrooms to be lit by natural lighting. The windows are placed in different strategic areas in order to maintain the privacy needed for a
classroom.

The project underlines the idea of a space with special qualities, that allows not only the learning through classes, but also that improves people’s experiences, mobility and their connection with school itself. Thus, we developed a concept of Open School, exploring the school more like a body rather than a building itself: the school it is not finished; it is in constant evolution and has to be used by children, teachers, parents… in order to achieve its potential and purpose.

At the same time, the Open concept also refers to the will of creating a building clearly connected to the city. Having that in mind, the shape of the proposal, made through cuts and subtractions, reflects the forms of the city. In addition to that, the two entrances allow the user to have different interactions and perceptions: as the student grows older and changes from preschool to primary school, so does his perception of the building, as if it was not the same.