The project was the answer to a competition for the construction of 164 apartments destined to rehouse the people from an area of slum housing.

The problems involved with designing a collective housing for this social group raised a series of question that, once recognised, needed to be studied and answered. Factors such as the different ways of inhabiting, the different family core, the several ethnic groups and their respective ingrained patterns of life, all called for a diversified use of space and demanded alternative spaces that should be integrated into the scheme, whilst arriving at a common denominative.

The construction of a collective group of housing in a deprived urban area is capable of raising the environmental standard of the whole locality. The site in question is excellently located near the National Highway 109, surrounded by green areas and with views to the sea. The design demanded care and attention in order to develop a language and a relationship between volumes, worried about not creating “social ghettos” that disadvantage the whole development and through association negate the remaining favourable spaces of the habitation, a threat urban social housing projects have fallen victim to in the past. There was an identified need to build the social housing and accompanying urban spaces with a strong regard of durability, in recognition of the fact that a non-descript act of degradation soon generates more significant decay.

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.

The LOOP Housing Complex is a project whose spaces are transformed into a concept, a new way of being and living, where the city is connected to the landscape, the house joins the vineyards, the residents to the visitors, where the interior expands to the outside, considering that the living is not only restricted to the private space of the house but also extends to collective life.

Regardless of the needs of occupation of this “LOOP” of housing and of the inner courtyard, which will be further specified, the intervention is understood as a whole, where the public and leisure space is the protagonist that, in spite of this, does not cease to be in agreement with the other parts. The galleries, besides being elements of circulation and access to the dwellings, running through the building and connecting all levels, are presented as one of the keys to the intervention, complementing the circulation and access spaces with places of passage, gardens and paths with visual amplitude and spatial attractiveness to create spaces for the conviviality of the residents.

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The implementation of the building results from the Detailed Plan proposed by the Municipality of Espinho.

The proposal stems from the concerns of articulation and qualification of the volume by defining the image of the block and complementing the design of the streets, started earlier, and lastly the concern in creating an architectural object that takes care of the transition of the two streets and makes the edge of the corner, as an exceptional situation.

In addition to these concerns, efforts were made to invest in housing where distribution is privileged.

Externally the building is formed with a modular laminated system in isothermal platelet allowing the acoustic and thermal insulation, creating “Brise-Soleil” in the glazing area, contributing to the qualification of the architectural language as well as to an excellent control of comfort in use.

The option for a building with a gallery distribution and duplex dwellings, helps to typologically mark an exceptional situation that this building must have.

The process of dismantling industrial units in city centres and relocating them on industrial estates in the suburbs has seen the freeing up and reurbanisation of many degraded, over crowded or decharacterised areas into new, structured urban places.

Luso Park is situated in the area where big celluloid manufactoring factory once stood – Luso Celluloid. In agreement with Municipal Planning Restrictions, the project contemplates two perpendicular buildings, one superimposed on the other, one with four and the other with eight floors, designed for housing and trade.

This whole group is marked by a composition among the volumes, that, in turn, complements the buildings and endows them with formal coherence. The lower building’s horizontality is punctuated by vertical elements in the living and cooking areas of the apartments. The vertical building, in its own way marked by horizontal lines that tear open the facade, with accentuated plinths underlining the whole volume.

Both the volumetric composition and the treatment of the surfaces are verified by the use of different materials intended to characterise the volumes.

Aluminium panels cover the horizontal building, and the vertical one is clad in prefabricated exposed white concrete.

The materials contrast with each other and in this way they reinforce the desogn of a coherent unit.

The building’s plans for the apartments and commercial spaces envisage 97 apartments, 9 single-bedroomed. 51 two-bedroomed, 36 three-bedroomed and 1 four-bedroomed plus two shops, and is supportedby an old street to the south with proposed access to the west.

The program established for this building promotes several typologies based on two acces types: there are multiple vertical circulation nodes in the horizontal volume, and internal communal circulation with lesser stair/lift runs in the vertical element.

The basement is designed exclusively for garages and storage.

The project is situated in an urban area currently undergoing transformation and is intended to maintain continuity with buildings constructed in the vicinity.

A compatibility study took place examining the templates and alignments of other buildings, for confirmation.

Occupying a plot on an intersection, a volume is projected, a box that opens up and closes without drawing references to the new constructions.

A small risk was taken in giving the apartments luxuriously sized circulation spaces,allowing for homes of various styles, but maintaining a clear and contained external image, differentiated by the functions and living spaces.

The south limit is totally glazed and is where the bedrooms and the living rooms are located. The whole north side of the building contains the services, the kitchens, the stairways and the courtyard, with access to the east.

The external panels, in marine ply, guarantee visual unity and protect the building.

The rhythm of the facade is set by the elements that comprise it,giving the volume a compact and methodical character; unified when the panels are shut; varied when open.

There is something dynamic about the image of this building where the travertine confronts the slatted panels marking the facade.The homes are now occupied, but the pedagogic process,the understanding, the use and the appropriation of spaces is still continuing.The project does not in itself contain any absolute truth, just uncertainties,hypotheses thrown down,desires to try, which, in motion, are conquered and verified by their very existence.