MCA
Minimod Catuçaba
Fazenda Catuçaba, SP, Brazil
2015
MINIMOD is an exploration on the experience of landscape and technology. It presents itself as a primitive retreat with a contemporary reinterpretation. Its compact and efficient design enhances the surroundings of where it is installed and turns them into available landscapes.
AWARDED PROJECT
★ Award of the Association of Art Critics of Sao Paulo 2018. Technological Innovation. São Paulo, Brazil
★ Ibero-American Biennial Award for Architecture and Urbanism 2016
★ Selection Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, IIT, Chicago, USA
We began exploring MINIMOD in 2009 and it still goes on. It´s very first prototype was constructed in Porto Alegre and installed near a lake in the southern wild landscapes. Happily, since then, quite a lot of new places have been explored. Both projects presented here belong to a new MINIMOD generation which inquires the idyllic Fazenda Catuçaba.
This old Fazenda is located in the east of São Paulo Estate surrounded by a chain of coastal mountains. With ondulating landscapes and dense vegetation, its captivating views invites the user be explored. Catuçaba`s MINIMODs move away from the old central house and seek the perfect terrain for being introduced. On top of a hill, on the edge of a small pond, near a stream or at the bottom of a valley; each adapts to its new landscapes and empowers them.
Both MINIMOD Catuçaba have been built in a factory in an industrial town near São Paulo metropolis. They were transported as separate modules for over 150km, before being installed on site with the help of crane trucks.
Geographically, these first two MINIMOD Catuçaba units are located in different places 1.000m away from each other. So they adopt different spatial configurations as a response for each situation.
MINIMOD CATUÇABA I
The first one, is located in a strategic position on top of a hill, taking a cross disposition on plan. Thus, each space of the shelter looks at a different cardinal point permitting a circular experience of the surrounding nature: dawn, day, sunset and night.
MINIMOD CATUÇABA II
The second one, is placed turning their backs to the road and opening itself to a small pond in the south of the fazenda, the retreat is hidden among the vegetation of the place. Using the same amount of modules as the cross, but organized in a linear way, it stays parallel to the hill slope and it is integrated through an expansion deck.
MAPA
Partners: Luciano Andrades, Matías Carballal, Rochelle Castro, Andrés Gobba, Mauricio López, Silvio Machado.
Project Team: Pablo Courreges, Diego Morera, Emiliano Lago, Mauricio Müller, Camilla Pereira.
Phography (Project): Leonardo Finotti
Phography (Prefab): André Turazzi
Phography (Lifestyle): Fazenda Catuçaba | E. Rengade
Construction: CG Sistemas
Hydraulic Project: Eng. Júlio César Troleis
Electrical project: Eng. Ari Martins Colares
