Single Family Dwelling of Self Construction in Luanda, Angola. by Laura Gonzalez Fierro from usa

Single Family Dwelling of Self-Construction in Luanda, Angola.
A single family dwelling that is radically cheap to build for Luanda, a city which is under extreme demographic pressure and is undergoing an intense process of transformation, and that is suited to the cultural, economic and social circumstances of the area.

This project, promoted in collaboration with the Luanda Triennial, never reached its destination or the jury due to Costumes clearance (NOBODY HAS EVER SEEN THIS PROPOSAL). The aim is to promote a sustainable, extremely well thought prototype that can provide a house to millions of people in extreme poverty around the globe. Is it a dwelling that allows for evolutionary solutions, and self-construction, which are therefore adapted, in this case, to the speed of transformation of the social fabric of Angola and Luanda, being the large African metropolis that it progressively will become.

The design is arranged in 3 components for different concepts:

(3) Types of scale (small, medium, and large),
(3) Types of ROOFS (Rainwater Harvesting System),
(3) Types of interlocking bricks (no need of mortar),
(3) Bio-thermal components (Sustainable elements);
- Rainwater Harvesting Systems,
- Cross Ventilation,
- Solar Panels.

The prototype is design to be an extremely functional piece of architecture; design revolves around three major bio-thermal components that make the dwelling sustainable and possible to be self-constructed. It offers elevated spatial conditions that trigger spiritual and metaphysical experiences through its simple layout and lattices. The same way the three interlocking bricks create the house at a human’s eye perception, the finished dwellings weave together to create an urban fabric that becomes a tapestry of color and reflections perceived from the sky. Geometrical shapes intertwine in a [SYSTEM] (pattern): creating a complexity through the simplicity of its elements. From the individual to the collective, the dwelling creates identity and therefore the feeling of belonging.

“ Inhabiting, the first mark that man made in the world. His very first way of existing. From the uterus to the house, this intrinsically feminine universe that represents the act of inhabiting is a place and inside it all of the forms of being in the world merge together, being father or a son, being before or after. The home in Luanda is a polarizer of the family world in its widest sense. The fundamental relationships of socialisation begin and end inside it. Birth, growing up and even death symbolically take place in the home and the understanding of this is tied to the ability to interpret the person from Luanda, the Angolan and even the African. The home today still preserves those ancestral places, which are not limited to walls and roofs. This entity which is so conventional and which is a place of things, emerges from man rather than space. It is something created for "us". For this reason, and so many others, it is fundamental to "us" to be collective, and nothing is more "us" than a piece of the sky..."

Architect Angela Branco Lima Mingas