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The client had as their main demands: all the same rooms with private pools, facing the sea and the use of cast-in-place concrete and masonry construction, given the difficulty of getting other types of materials to the site, such as metal structures, wood and the like.
With this definition of implementation in mind, we started to think about the use of the room and especially the balcony with private pool by a couple on vacation. Thinking about the materials that exist on the island and that the local workforce was used to working with, we created various items that would make up these balconies.
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After several implementation studies, we realized that the only way to meet the clients main demand, of all the twenty rooms facing the sea, would be for a single block that would intersect the land transversally, sectioning it between front and back, due to the number of units. Since the rooms were supposed to be the same, this ended up creating a kind of large block, almost a wall facing the view.
With a great concern to create a construction that would cause the least possible impact on the island, the project's priorities were: to use materials already available in the region and to employ construction techniques that the local workforce was already accustomed to. With these two points, we avoided transporting exotic raw materials to the island and prevented extensive travel for specialized labor, thereby strengthening the local economy.
With the definition of implementation in mind, we started to think about the use of the room and especially the balcony with private pool by a couple on vacation. When we discussed how this experience could be stimulated in different ways by architecture, many ideas came to light, in many different configurations. At that point, we decided to go against what the clients had asked for - all the rooms would be the same, but all the balconies would be completely different. Starting from the premise of masonry and cast-in-place concrete, we created various items that would make up these balconies, either covered or uncovered, such as pergolas, pools in different shapes, benches, sun loungers cast in place, planters, water spouts, hammocks, cobogós and others. Based on these items, we created variations on all the balconies and this variation is expressed on the façade, creating an element of connection with the front of the plot, as opposed to a large simple wall that bothered us so much.
Starting from simple materials and construction techniques, we created a wide spatial variety with careful design of each element employed. The result is almost a complex construction that explores the diversity of elements in an unusual way, allowing for interesting one-off experiments, such as a balcony completely wrapped in cobogós, a gazebo, swimming pools with shapes designed for a couple and so on.
Created in 1999, FGMF produces contemporary architecture, without restraints regarding the use of material and building techniques, seeking to explore the connection between architecture and its environment.
In these few years of existence, we’ve had the opportunity to deal with a wide range of architectural scales and programs, what enhances our belief that, just as life itself, architecture ought to be plural, heterogeneous and dynamic. Urban design, cultural facilities, residences, sports facilities, hospitals, schools, commercial buildings and many other are part of the same urban landscape and of our daily life: knowing how to deal with all these programs is a way to enrich our design, in contrast to a specialized architecture.
Based on the professional and academic experience of its associates, FGMF has an innovative and inventive approach. There are no pre-conceived formulae: at every challenge we start from scratch, using design as a research tool.
