Water is the hot topic among the project entries for the Holcim Awards in region Latin America. Whether for wastewater, drinking water, or tidal water, many of the prize winners have innovative and often surprising proposals for ways to master the use of this precious resource in Latin America.

On the site of a former quarry, the project extends the headquarters of Brazil’s premier mathematics institution, National Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics (IMPA). Housing for researchers, a library, and classrooms are set into thin, elevated bars that extend from the edge of the city into the forest canopy. Each pavilion-like structure is functionally indeterminate, anticipating changes in use over time. Generous communal spaces encourage interaction between the researchers. Each volume is broken down into the planes of an array of shading devices that give the building a light, responsive expression.  

Place

IMPA is located within a transition zone between the urban environment and the Tijuca Forest. The design’s major challenge was to implement the Institute in a complex topography – facing geotechnical risks and a densely wooded area – causing the least possible impact. We conceived a matrix which was well integrated with the environment and ensured a low impact intervention. Also, we seek a strong link between the new buildings and the typical humid-tropical construction, on stilts, known as “palafitas”. The construction on stilts preserves former connections at ground level, reducing vegetal suppression to the minimum and assuring a low soil permeability index. A monitoring system of the ground and a drainage system, is planned in order to avoid debris slides during heavy rains.