September 2007, Self-Fab House

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Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House
Self-Fab House

2nd advanced architecture contest, IaaC, barcelona, ES, 2007,
international competition, finalist (site: ahmedabad, india)
team: peter malaga, maria stella boechat cordeiro

Taking as an example the recently floods in south Asia, we decided to make a project for a slum community located along the banks of Sabarmati river in central Ahmedabad, where there are regular floods. We focused for the Sunday market community, placed on the border between the future developed area and the left-overs of what used to be a natural environment and now is taken by the slums. SU market is located in an area which is now degraded, polluted and empty during the week, but every Sunday morning, at the eastern foot of the Ellis bridge, a sprawling market comes to life. All kinds of things can be found on the spread plastic tarps along the area. From furniture to batteries, from spectacle lenses to medicine tablets, new stuff is mixed with the used and junk becomes useful again, Society’s basic, centuries-years-old recycling practice is in its full-form depicted here. We propose an overlapping of the artificial and the natural, contemporary and historical. We redefined the sense of SU market by creating a hybrid mixture of market, housing and landscaping. The area would be as a “research village” where the community could be informed how to build the house by themselves. The basic feature of the project is the use of available resources such as things which lost their primary utility and in our project they just start to live again. Reused plastic barrels, containers, palletes, etc., combined with natural materials such as bamboo. The houses are oriented from SU market to the semi-private bamboo garden. Each housing unit consists of three parts: plastic structure (shop, work-shop, living), bamboo structure (living) and bamboo garden (source of a raw material for construction of the bamboo units). The plastic structure is made by joined barrels and stacked palletes and some of the barrels also work as water collectors. All plastic structure is covered by plastic sheets to cover the interior. The bamboo structure consists of tied raw bamboo sticks and acts like natural “refrigerator”, bringing fresh air into the rest of the house. These two parts are covered by textile and plastic nets which provide sun protection and create more intimacy.