Articles by Andreas Luco

The site on the edge of the Jaguari dam, with a wide view of the Serra do Lopo, made it clear that Joanópolis House should establish a strong relationship with the landscape. However, the built context, close to the neighboring houses, suggested just the opposite. Out of this contradiction, a binuclear layout was designed, where one nucleus proposes a connection with the outside world and the other with the intimate universe. The need to create an internal courtyard to abstract from the surroundings led to the selection of an intermediate elevation as the main one. In other words, the first step was to define what would not be built. Then the two nuclei that surround and protect it were practically a consequence. 

The site on the edge of the Jaguari dam, with a wide view of the Serra do Lopo, made it clear that Joanópolis House should establish a strong relationship with the landscape. However, the built context, close to the neighboring houses, suggested just the opposite. Out of this contradiction, a binuclear layout was designed, where one nucleus proposes a connection with the outside world and the other with the intimate universe. The need to create an internal courtyard to abstract from the surroundings led to the selection of an intermediate elevation as the main one. In other words, the first step was to define what would not be built. Then the two nuclei that surround and protect it were practically a consequence. 

The house is located in a residential neighborhood of the city of Loja, at 2,060 meters above sea level in the lower Andes in southern Ecuador. Situated on a small plot of 7.60 m x 13.50 m, this project seeks to reflect on issues related to the structural principle in the definition of architecture and spatial flexibility as a design resource.

Located on the heavenly beaches of Tulum, Casa Zamná is an architectural project facing the Caribbean Sea. This boutique hotel developed on a 5,160 m² plot and carefully designed by StudioArqs, stands as a tribute to nature and local culture, achieving a harmonious fusion between contemporary design and the most traditional elements of the region. 

The Taipa House, designed by architect Leandro Neves from Studio Leandro Neves for CasaCorRio, is, as the name suggests, a 110m² loft that features a project based on an earthy color palette combined with natural elements, especially earth, in a contemporary approach. The taipa de mão technique—a process that uses kneaded clay to fill spaces created by a type of grating—covers the loft’s only curved wall. This wall was built to delineate the sleeping area and bathroom, while also serving as a large artistic panel, created by the Materia Base office. “Historically, taipa walls were synonymous with low-income housing. In our loft, this ancient technique is elevated to luxury status, inviting us to reflect on the feasibility of using simple, handcrafted, and low-environmental-impact materials in today’s homes,” says Leandro.

When the architect first saw the scene, several persimmon trees on the site had already hung fruit, and he immediately decided to find a way to keep these persimmon trees, that is, to cut and retreat the shape of the three homestay rooms.

The main challenges of the Bonlad project were to adopt a strategy to address the issue of “context” on a large scale and overcome the limitations imposed by the project’s western neighborhood (prohibition of the direct view towards a government building). From a physical point of view, we encountered a lot of low-quality constructed buildings in the city of “Ilam” with minimal semi-open spaces. Our critical approach to the typical low-quality apartments in the city, with nearly “100 percent” lot coverage without any livable space, led us to make this project as a platform for the realization of the idea of extensive and active semi-open spaces using the concept of “Spatial Border”. Therefore, the design process began with this question: How can we take the advantages of the “corrosive grid” to address a “Spatial Border” in order to resolve the contextual issues?