Deforetation facts
Economic potential of sustainable harvesting
Belem du para_Amazon river delta
Exploration of forms promoting natural ventilation
Form development process
Cooling and ventilation_performance section
Development process for a shading device
Gridshell structure_low cost construction
Structural elements
Economic facilitator
Low energy design local fabrication strategy
Deforestation of the Amazon, currently the region's primary economic resource, is also a major cause of global warming. Offering financially viable alternatives for the region can alleviate this situation.
Situated in the city of Belem, the gateway to Brazil's Amazon, the project is a prototypical development aiming to instigate an economy of micro-exchange between indigenous producers of sustainable rainforest products and foreign investors
Intensive on-site research of local culture, environmental conditions and materials informed formal strategies generating low-energy building performance. The aim is for architecture to attract and educate people on the importance of ecological building and sustainable economies.
This project was selected to represent the Architectural Association at the RIBA Part 2 President's Medals Awards, 2007.
The following testimonial was received from the professors reviewing the project: “This project demonstrates a type of ‘Environmental Ornamentation', to make ecological lifestyles more accessible and appealing to both the local inhabitants and outside investors in the Amazon. To reduce deforestation, alternative sustainable economies, which are needed to sustain the forest’s inhabitants, should be branded in a compelling manner. promoting sustainable products within an elegant combination of grid-shell structures, natural ventilation, and diffused sun-lighting systems. The building creates novel atmospheric effects in the channelling of wind and light, as well as the movement of pedestrian and economic flows, inventing a more socially and aesthetically engaging type of ecological architecture.”
