العربية
Brazilian architecture firm Gisele Borges Arquiteora has built an apartment building wrapped in aluminium, painted in a dark,
earthy reddish brown that alludes to the abundance of ore in Minas Gerais.
The triangular apartment block is named CASAMIRADOR Savassi, located in Belo Horizonte, Minas, Gerais, Brazil.
It features boldly designed architecture that stands out in the local landscape.
Design features
Offering 14 lofts and 24 studios, the units are distributed over nine floors in a building located on a narrow plot of land,
with a width of 12.7 meters.
As the studio explained, the challenge of volumetric mathematics was derived from respecting
the distances within its surrounding neighbors, creating architecture with its own identity.
The interdependence between the building structure and the architectural project
allowed great creative freedom, culminating in the most prominent element:
The second skin that covers the building like a garment, giving it unique properties.
Aluminum was the main material that enveloped the entire building,
while it was painted an earthy reddish-brown that recalls the abundance of ore in Minas Gerais.
In order to obtain lightness and transparency,
the aluminum sheets received perforations of different sizes.
And it’s made asymmetrically, but symmetrically.
This process allows a view through it from the inside out,
as cityscapes are revealed through the skin.
A red earthen apartment block building on a narrow plot of land in Brazil
However, from the outside looking in, the inside cannot be seen, ensuring privacy for the resident.
This element also made it possible to explore a rich set of effects,
from masking smaller functional windows, to tearing the skin to reveal large spaces.
These windows are designed as generous openings,
allowing the city to become an extension of the home.
With an abundance of lighting and ventilation.
The concrete frames of the openings contrast with the predominant anodized colour.
The skin covering the building also provides thermal comfort to the units.
Away from the building, it provides shade for the fences and good ventilation through a mattress of fresh air.
From this perspective, sustainability guided a large part of the project choices.
Due to the reduced dimensions of the land,
and the minimum surface area for the installation of PV equipment or panels,
It was necessary to find a solution that would avoid the entry of heat, at the expense of the air conditioning project.
Optimization in the secondary structure
The pyramidal shape of the building, which resulted from the staggering,
allowed the allocation of artistic areas on the outside of the building,
And also on the inside of the leather, ensuring a clean and unobtrusive plastic.
Another feature of the project relates to the challenge of placing the pyramid on the ground, gently touching the ground at one point.
Under the influence of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer,
a “V” shaped column was created,
Which is widely used in his works.
Finally, to ensure flatness on the facades, the panels are bent on all four sides,
thus increasing their rigidity.
Although the panels were randomly perforated,
the joints were aligned and the size was consistent.
Several studies were carried out until the final installation model produced the alignment of the panels and the midpoint of each floor.
The study included the improvement in the secondary structure for fixing the panels:
There are only three horizontal sides for each floor,
and the upper and lower sections are also combined to fix the adjacent floor slabs.
The final plastic is the result of a marriage between the hood covers,
the frames and the bodywork.
There are three elements that alternate at the interfaces with greater or lesser relevance to the skin,
This ensures a clean, untextured plastic.
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