Vale de Cambra | Summary

This project was born in order to build housing and multi-services spaces, in a common road-side area in Vale de Cambra, Portugal. The client required that the construction should be fast and cost effective, which prompted us to use the Gomos System.

The strategy was simple: a ground floor level for the multi-services program connected with the public space, crowned by the individual habitational units. Due to the differences between the two programs, we created an independent access for each function and placed them in different levels, taking advantage of the natural ground’s slope.

The ground floor is composed by prefabricated slabs and structural panels in the whole exterior perimeter. Considering the building`s location, in a road-side area where everything changes too fast, the multi-services space is conceived in a very flexible way: the internal compartmentalization is made with removable panels with inner rails for the distribution of water and electricity systems. This enables future adjustments and modifications: we can add or remove compartments or let the whole level function as an open space. Thus, the users will make this space to their own, according the program at hand.

The first floor is all composed with the Gomos System. Considering the maximum permitted area by law was quite short, we managed to find space to separate the housing units. Concepted and licensed as a collective housing building, we gained with this split the main advantages of single houses: clearly individualized entrances and a complete acoustic separation between the different units.