SOCIAL DESIGN: Vila Matilde House

The story of this project begins in early 2014 when after a storm, the bedroom ceiling from the house of Dona Dalva, a Brazilian senior lady in her 70´s collapsed on top of her bed. Dona Dalva had been living for over a decade in an old house she bought on Vila Matilde neighborhood in Sao Paulo, working her entire life as a housemaid and living out of minimum wage this was all she could afford. Then years later at her advanced age she was facing the problem of not having a place to live.

After this scary episode the choices were very limited regarding how to proceed next. Her son thought that she only had two options with her sparse savings: move really far away from her family and neighborhood into a small flat with no elevator or rebuilt her house – not knowing if her budget was enough to do so.

Considering her age and the eventual assistance she could need later on in life, her son decided to approach the architecture studio Terra e Tuma, with hope they will help save the house or build a new one with a very limited budget. The young firm took up the challenge and an internationally awarded house was born as result.

The old house had to be demolished. It was beyond saving with an important amount of cracks and structural failures, was literally falling apart.

The architects recall how for this project the priority was to create a good living environment for her. Good lighting, a garden and ceilings as high as possible were a must, all within the frame of a limited budget.

The house took around one year to build, including this period of time the demolition of the old house and construction of foundations. The cost for the new one was around 150,000 reales (around 40,000 Euros), the 50 years life savings of Dona Dalva. The architects explain: “The project didn't cost less, it just cost what it should”.

The main focus for the architects was to invest money in the most important features like space and lighting (with all the windows), and we are left with a very humble and modern house with exposed concrete blocks and no coating.

We like:

This house is a great example of architecture serving people. In words of one of the project architects:  "We wanted to give a response of social and physical health, not just the things society believes architects can provide: aesthetics and dreams.. The architect's role is increasingly changing, not just here in Brazil, but all over the world. We're reevaluating thinking about who and what we work for".

No doubt this project is a great lesson for our societies, bringing design closer to the ones who need it the most, teaching us that architecture doesn't has to mean high budget and extravagance.

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