Casa em Itapetinga: Water Retention House

Itapetinga, Bahia, Brazil
2022

Water Retention House envisions what the practice of architecture would be if it were solely the practice of designing the dynamics of ecosystems. If cultural inhabitation and ecosystem dynamics were the same project: what architectural solutions are possible?

This house is located on a large family farm, or fazenda, in a savannah region of Bahia state, in Itapetinga, Brazil. The biome region is a dry area of the Mata Atlântica, a forest that was the second largest rain forest on the planet.  The area is now deforested, which has depleted the land and caused catastrophic floods. The region has two seasons: a wet season with torrential rains, and a hot dry season. Climate change has caused increasingly heavy rain events and increasing heat.

Traditional houses in this region have large roofs in response to the region’s two seasons.  However, new houses in the region follow the global suburban paradigm of ignoring local climate.  In the face of harsh climate change, this way of building has become unsustainable.

Our solution seeks to reconnect the client’s family to the site’s natural climate cycles. The house is sited to maximize natural ventilation and to create territories of inhabitation around it (churrasco, pool, areas for animals, and areas for outdoor play).

The roof is conceived as a stratum that directs large water flows to new mounds; it is a traditional terra-cotta tile and timber assembly whose planes are curved to direct water into the new ground. The mounds are strata of compacted and uncompacted earth to retain water, and even store it, which in turn will support new vegetation and trees that will further shade the house. The walls are thick stone shaped to be ecosystem anchors for restorative plant, bird, and insect habitats.  

In this scenario, roof and ground are the primary actors in the dynamics of water flow and sun protection: they shape the cultural figure of the house. The walls create pockets for habitat: they shape the program. Together, the roof, ground, and walls create a newly diverse microbiome called a house.