Aqueduct House

Houses, communities and cities, blurring the line. A home inhabited by a likely-to-grow family should grow with the family itself, providing flexible spaces to suit age groups and personal preferences. The project explores simple values such as: improve living standards, source locally, build simple, and plan ahead, within the context-specific of a rural African family. The Aqueduct House aims to combine these points into one responsive building system. Provide an effective rain collection method that would allow to channel water to a tank and to lay the foundation for an overall distribution system was crucial. Inspired by Roman aqueducts, one spiralling gutter embedded on the top of the structural wall gathers rain water towards a water tank currently placed as to supply both kitchen and showers. To source locally and devise a low-cost material palette was necessary to ensure construction feasibility. Brick was chosen for different reasons: it is locally available and easy to produce, and most important, its modularity hides a plethora of potential applications. The articulation of the brick wall combines solid and void to regulate cross-ventilation, views, light and movement. Moreover, patterns can be used to empower individuals to customize their own space. On top of the wall, a modular roof unit is repeated to create rooms. Modularity ensures low cost, and once the method has been learned, it is easy to reproduce and expand. Because of its availability and workability, bamboo is chosen for doors and finishing. Finally, all these aspects needed to answer to future challenges of the site. Most important was the aspect of growth. A building that can easily expand to host a larger family, or even a community. When the brick wall, with the embedded gutter, extends along the predetermined spiral pattern, only a short stretch allows an additional module of the roof structure to be fitted, and an extra room to become available