The conceptual approach for this Living Steel Project in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil is to design and develop high-quality housing that will address the unique and specific issues of the people, culture and city, as well as the universal issues of multi-family housing, urban living and environmental stewardship.

Recife is a culturally, environmentally and economically complex region. Beachfront resorts and picturesque bridges blend into internet cafes and industrial developments fringed with houses, housing and eventually the inevitable slums common to most large urban areas. Located between the Beberibe River, the Capibaribe River and the Atlantic Ocean, Recife's islands, mangroves and poor soils have a definite influence over architectural design. Limited construction technology, a non-professional labor force and finite funding have a definite influence over construction techniques. And the fragile ecosystem, availability of indigenous building materials and ever-growing concern for conservation of resources and protection of the environment have a definite influence over siting, health and sustainability.

Perkins + Will's (USA) conceptual approach for this Living Steel Project is to develop well-designed housing that will embrace the heritage and culture of Pernambuco, utilize the inherent labor, techniques and materials of the region and be a healthy and restorative environment for both the land and people of Recife.

Northeast Elevation 

Recife: Indigenity The competition site is located southwest of the city of Recife, just 8-meters above mean sea level. Formerly an area of mangroves, the site sits just 1.3-meters above the water table, which makes lightweight or float-foundations functionally- and economically-preferable over heavy or deep foundations. Recife is also just 8^o south of the equator, has ample sunlight and a fairly constant southeastern breeze. Combined, these elements describe a site potentially rich in natural daylight, water, vegetation and fresh air.

The vernacular Pernambuco building techniques addressed all of these issues. Traditional "palafitas," stilt-houses, elevated living areas above the flood level and enjoying the natural ventilation and cooling from breezes passing over, through and beneath the dwellings. Slatted and louvered openings permitted breezes but kept elements of direct sun, rain and uninvited visitors out. Local building materials were available, affordable and reflective of the culture and traditions of the region. Increased urbanism and modernism brought a decline in popularity of this traditional construction type, and Palafitas tended to become associated with flood-prone, undesirable building sites, poverty and blight. Recent development is reversing that trend. Contemporary lodges, resorts and housing developments are once again returning to vernacular construction styles as functional, beautiful and environmentally-preferable building types.

Perkins + Will's concept embraces these traditions of building and translates them into a contemporary language of design and construction. To address the lack of skilled workers and poor ground conditions, Perkins + Will proposes to utilize pre-fabricated, repetitive materials to the greatest extent possible. This will allow for the fabrication quality to be maintained in the factory, produce little construction waste and allow workers with little experience or newly-acquired skills to be productive by requiring repetitive tasks and limited expertise.

Our Living Steel Project design is a series of buildings designed as a steel framework into which individual, customizable and transformable living units may be constructed. This design allows the project to be largely prefabricated for quality control, easily transported to the site, quickly completed using local labor and materials then customized as desired by the developer, site and residents.

The buildings are uniquely and specifically designed for this project site but are adaptable to any site and many configurations. Each dwelling unit has access to shared community garden and recreational areas, private exterior terraces and individual rooftop gardens. This diversity of exterior spaces allows for community interaction and socializing as well as private dining, relaxation or supervised play areas for small children.

Drawing from the traditional raised building style of the palafitas, dwelling units are raised above the foundations on a steel frame, allowing car parking to be accommodated underneath. This allows the design to accomplish many things. First, habitable spaces are elevated up out of the danger of the flood plain. This also leaves the ground-level areas available for other uses, including parking, rainwater management and pedestrian pathways. Second, breezes are able to circulate underneath the dwellings, providing natural cooling and finally, security is enhanced by increasing visual observation of the site by occupants and reducing burglaries and crimes of opportunity frequently visited on ground-level dwelling units.

The individual dwelling units are designed so that strategies not only have sustainability benefits but offer residents a variety of living spaces as well. Each unit includes a private terrace area, which may be partially enclosed or fully opened to the exterior. This area separates the kitchen and warm cooking areas of the house from the cooler living spaces, offers exterior living or dining areas and allows cooling breezes to circulate throughout the unit and exhaust any lingering heat and odors from the kitchen. All areas may be closed and secured for privacy or security.

The project is designed to be efficient to both construct and occupy and include features that are proven to be environmentally responsible and economically beneficial regardless of income level or construction budget. The result is an integrated design that is aesthetically pleasing, safe and comfortable and not only works to conserve resources but also to restore them.

The solar path and direction of prevalent breeze were the primary consideration for the location and orientation of each individual building, the connections and open areas between buildings and the development as a whole. As with most sustainably-designed projects, simply considering proper site orientation can dramatically improve the energy-performance, daylight and ventilation effectiveness of a building.

The buildings are all arranged on the parcel-20 site to take advantage of the solar path by allowing natural daylight into the buildings while avoiding solar heat-gain. Mornings and evenings will produce intense low, direct sunlight, so buildings are oriented with short sides facing these orientations and provided with sunscreens and overhangs to mitigate heat gain. Sunlight on the north and south faces will be indirect most of the year since proximity to the equator makes the path of the sun almost directly overhead. Prevalence of natural daylight will reduce the necessity of artificial lighting for much of the day. Buildings are also designed to capture the prevailing cooling breezes, which steadily blow from the southeast. Following the traditions of vernacular design in the region, the buildings are designed for thermal and ventilation comfort without mechanical HVAC equipment and the associated energy use, cost, interior air quality degradation and harmful refrigerants.

Building Key Features and Considerations

• Elevated dwelling floors allow the breezes to pass under, around and above the buildings.
• Operable windows with shutters and interior louvers permit cross ventilation. • Ventilation stacks through the building allows warm air to rise while the natural laminar airflow on the building exterior creates an active airflow through the dwelling unit and keeps the interior spaces cool and clear of dust and contaminants.
• Louvers may be opened or closed as desired by building residents, and glazed panels may be opened independently of louvers for secure night-time cooling.
• Breezeways separating kitchens and living areas prevent cooking heat and odors from accumulating in the dwelling units and offer private exterior living and dining areas for each home.
• Laundry area retractable clothes lines will use interior cross ventilation for clothes drying thereby eliminating the need for and cost of installing and operating gas or electric clothes dryers.
• Domestic hot water will be provided by individual solar water heaters located on the roofs of each building.
• Optional Photovoltaic arrays to provide building and individual dwelling unit electricity can be installed as shown on the rooftops of each building. Size and installation of photovoltaic panels may be coordinated with the solar Energy Laboratory at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife.• Rooftop gardens will provide additional insulation against direct solar heat gain and cooling through evapotranspiration by plants.
• Flowering vegetation or citrus trees planted at the southeast edge of the site add refreshing fragrance to the prevailing breezes. One of the growing environmental concerns in urban and developing areas is water. The availability of clean, potable water and the protection of natural water resources is vital to everyone and all life. With its location just above the flood plain and the increasing amount of development, water management is a key consideration in the design of this project:
• Rainwater falling on the building roofs will either be utilized for irrigation by the rooftop gardens or captures and held in cisterns located at the ground level of the ventilation stacks. This captured "graywater" will be filtered and used for non-potable uses, including toilet flushing and irrigation.
• Captured graywater may optionally be further filtered within individual dwelling units for use as a potable water supply.
• Rainwater exceeding the capacity of the cisterns will be channeled through the site along a central system of bioswails and raingardens. This will create a natural water filtration system which allows water to course through planted materials and soak into the ground, recharge the local aquifers, eliminate the need for piped infrastructure for managing rainwater and significantly reduce the pollutants and chemicals in the local water supply.
• Vehicular roadways will be paved with pervious materials where possible to reduce the amount of rainwater runoff. Water will either be allowed to filter into the ground to recharge local aquifers or will be directed to the bioswails. Roadways will not include curbs or gutters but will permit water to be directed into vegetated areas.
• Pedestrian walkways at ground level include a pathway of raised boardwalks, which will separate pedestrians from vehicle traffic, allow residents to walk over the bioswails, enjoy the planted raingardens and observe the natural water-cleansing system. The responsible selection and use of materials is an important consideration in this design. Urban and developing areas have seen the tremendous rise of landfills overflowing with discarded goods and the resulting visual blight, air, water and land contamination and potential for disease and injury they generate. With growing availability of and access to consumer goods, the embodied energy and life-cycle of those goods becomes increasingly important:
• Building components, including the steel superstructure and framework, insulated wall panels and interior millwork will be prefabricated in factories and manufacturing facilities as much as possible. This will allow higher quality control and reduce the amount of waste generated on-site from inexperienced contractors or errors in construction.
• Building components will be limited in type, size, configuration and assembly requirements so that fewer errors will be made by contractors with limited skills or experience.
• Preference will be given to using locally-available materials and manufacturers in order to support the local economy and reduce the cost and time of long-distance transportation.
• Materials and products will be selected to give preference to those with recycled content or which are made of recyclable materials, in order to reduce the amount of waste generated from construction of the project.• Materials will be selected which do not contain chemicals or additives known to pose health threats by exposure to or contact with them, such as high levels of volatile organic compounds or dioxins.
• Wood used for construction of the boardwalks and terraces will be sourced from regional Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified forests or reclaimed submerged river timber, thereby reducing potential damage caused by unsustainable foresting. Species, such as Massaranduba, Cumaru or Ipe, will be used to reduce the need for pressure-treating or chemically-treating and maintaining wood used in exterior conditions.
• Paving used for vehicle access and parking will be minimized and will use light-colored aggregate or shell to reduce the amount of solar heat gain and potential ground-level ozone on the site. The amount of paved area required for parking can be further reduced by organizing a shared-car program, such as Flex-car or carpooling.

Studies have shown that residential developments with occupants who are interactive, engaged and feel responsible for their dwellings are likely to be better maintained, safer and with more satisfied occupants than developments perceived as large and impersonal. Even for residents who are likely to be temporary, transient, of lower-income level or without post-graduate degrees, there are many ways to promote active participation and many advantages offered to the residents by the design of this development:

• The required 190-units have been divided into twelve smaller buildings, of four-stories and sixteen units each (192 total units provided). Smaller clusters rather than a large single building allows residents, especially children, to more-readily identify "their" house within the development, thereby providing a sense of identity and security.
• Separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, provision of various locations and scales of recreation and play areas and design of the buildings to provide amply natural daylight and ventilation will enhance safety for families and children.
• Each dwelling unit will have access to an individual rooftop garden plot which may be used for growing vegetables or flowers. Building residents could jointly grow and share a variety of plants to use or share.
• Construction methods required for the development will be largely straightforward, repetitive and will be manageable with limited tools or technology. This gives the developer the opportunity of utilizing local labor, potentially even future residents, for the construction process.
• Wall panels will be modular and interchangeable, which will allow a degree of customization for each building and potentially each dwelling unit. Operable windows, louvers and moveable screens and shutters will give residents control over their environment.
• Designing the development to be sustainable and rely on natural systems such as daylight, ventilation and rainwater management reduces the cost of maintaining and occupying the dwellings. Lower utility costs will be very beneficial to occupants, especially those with limited incomes.
• Designing this development as a visibly environmentally-beneficial and restorative project will provide benefits to the local, regional and ultimately global ecosystem, but will also serve as a teaching tool for environmental stewardship.

Each of the twelve buildings is structurally identical. The flood plain and poor soil-bearing capacity dictate that the buildings be supported on float foundations which will distribute the loads relatively consistently over the building footprint. The float foundations are poured concrete and steel columns are encased at their lowest level for protection. Each building consists of a steel "superstructure," frame, floor support and connecting pedestrian breezeways and circulation. The twelve buildings are paired and share stairs and circulation through covered, open-air connectors, thereby taking advantage of the cooling breeze and the economy of reduced number of stair towers required. Each building is four-stories of dwelling units and is sub-divided into quadrants. The resulting design is one that is able to be mass-produced, preassembled and easily-constructed through a series of uncomplicated, repetitive tasks.

The buildings superstructure and frameworks are pre-finished steel, members of which are precisely prefabricated for quality-control, then partially assembled, marked and shipped to the site for final assembly. Floor construction is a custom prefabricated steel edge angle designed to carry either a steel deck with lightweight concrete fill for interior spaces or slats of wood for exterior decks and terraces. Once the steel frame, floor angles and deck are in place, prefabricated factory-finished steel exterior grids will be erected. This design and process will be repeated for each building. Wall panels will vary, depending on individual requirements. Interchangeable panels, including opaque insulated panels, glazed window or door panels and operable screens, louvers or shutter panels will be installed within the exterior grid. This project design and construction methodology means:

• Quality control through use of prefabrication, prefinished and preassembled components.
• Reduced waste generated from construction errors, limited contractor skills or mis-specifying of products.
• Reduced waste generated from manufacturing process by coordinating standard wall panel dimensions with standard building material dimensions.
• Limited need of on-site technologies or heavy equipment. The reduced scale and height of the buildings and design of the steel superstructure means that heavy or tall cranes and lifts will not be required for hoisting materials and workers.
• Installation of individual wall panels within the building grids may be done from the interior or floor deck of the dwelling units, thereby reducing the need for scaffolding and the risk of injury.
• Individual wall panels may be configured for each dwelling unit, depending on the preference for daylight, ventilation or privacy. Panels may also be individually replaced or repaired, thereby limiting the cost and time for building maintenance.
• Building materials will be used, including environmentally-preferable steel, concrete, masonry, wood and plant materials, which are largely available through local sources and manufacturers.
• Interior partitions will contribute to the natural cross-ventilation of the dwelling units by providing louvers at the top of the partitions and into the central ventilation chimneys.
• Operating and maintenance costs will be reduced for both the developer and residents by reducing dependence on utilities and municipal infrastructure and the increasing the use of natural and environmentally-preferable systems and components.
• Local building vernaculars such as palafitas, local materials including wood and recycled steel and utilization of local labor will demonstrate respect for the indigenous culture, traditions and people.

Materials and supplies will be obtained from local, environmentally-preferable manufacturers and suppliers to the greatest extent possible in order to promote the local economy and reduce the costs and adverse effects of long-distance transportation.

In addition, consideration has been given to material durability, reuse and deconstruction at the end of the development's useful life. Finishes and materials have been selected to be long-lasting and require little maintenance by residents, such as wood decking of durable local species, which will be allowed to weather rather than other softwoods which would require constant waterproofing and staining. Glazed terra cotta masonry units will be prefinished and scrubbable for durability and cleanliness. By designing the buildings as system of individual components attached to a steel superstructure, panels and materials likely to receive more wear, abuse or with shorter life expectancy are designed to be easily-replaced. For instance, a wall panel damaged my accident may be removed and repaired or replaced, and a component no longer required for it's original purpose, such as a louver or screen, may be replaced with a more appropriate panel. This will increase the overall life and usefulness of the buildings beyond those designed as a single unit. Major structural components will be of steel, which will be disassembled at the end of the project's usefulness and recycled into new products for new projects.