una torre a rio de janeiro | Anna Rita Emili

Our “Lighthouse tower”, as any lighthouse, is meant to be enlightening, showing the way to a building that is environmentally friendly, deeply bonded with local heritage and culture while staying perfectly modern and dynamic. We chose to imagine and create something that would have been impressively small when compared to its height, so that this lighthouse couldn’t absolutely be in the way of the amazing landscape surrounding it. This is the reason for the two pillars that successfully bring the actual building as high as possible in the sky, naturally attracting everyone’s glances. Once the gazing reaches the top it’s certain for everyone to easily recognize in the transparent Glass Cube, wrapped with slides made in natural materials, the typical local hand-made box that is the result of the intertwining of pliable bands. This box is normally used by the natives to keep their jewels, mostly made of colourful feathers, and our Cube, exactly like the box it takes inspiration from, keeps several walls with images on that portray the native’s feathery jewels. To make this Cube even more fitting to the surrounding landscape, the aforementioned slides are not fixed but can be moved to allow many different views; all the same, most of the internal walls are sliding, in order to change the indoor space according to the different necessities that may come up. The slides are designed to house light-leds, and even the concrete, of which the pillars are made, is translucid and adds its light to the building.