Articles by Valeria Silva

The Malabar Province of the Order of Discalced Carmelite (OCD) – affiliated to the Catholic Church, commissioned the ‘Benziger Hospice Home’ project in the South Indian city of Trivandrum with the vision of providing free accommodation for cancer patients visiting local hospitals. The project’s original brief was for five floors, which was reduced to three storeys encompassing 26 Patient Suites during project development.

Portola Valley House deals in contrasts: it’s a home for two with the flexibility to become a house for many. The design brief was to create an intimate space and a single-story home to age in place, with enough space for the couple’s children and grandchildren to visit, and to be able to entertain large groups.

Game of solids and voids. In the house, space is used but has yet to be lived in. The family, who has recently moved in, is settling in, capturing sensations and sequences which will soon become the pillars of the upcoming project. 

Gingar is the basic movement of capoeira , a Brazilian martial art, and it is deeply related to the idea of moving harmoniously. It always takes place with more than one person arranged in a circle, where there is a constant exchange of energy between individuals. Similarly, the Ginga project seeks to bring meaning to the Superposition concept, the theme of Hello Wood – a wood construction festival, in its 2020 edition in Argentina.

The plot´s terrain had an impressive descent of 16 meters (52 ft) within its limits. On the bottom, a ravine with a dry creek offers a level of intimacy and contact with nature unmatched by the conditions at street level. The project´s main objective was to reach the lowest point of the terrain. The house needed a sequence of varying levels that translates onto a subtle descent parallel to the natural context.

This house is two thirds of a final project that is not necessarily going to be completed.