The decision to lift a building off the ground is a technical maneuver that requires substantial planning, expertise, and careful consideration. It is a deliberate architectural response to the site's forces and fragilities. Floodplains, wetlands, and thawing tundra share a common thread: Architects reconcile risk and vulnerability through elevated structures. In this sense, it is a spatial response and a structural necessity.
The Latin American territory encompasses a vast diversity of climates, atmospheres, and temperatures across its entire expanse. Amid forested landscapes, jungles, or coastal settings, many architects choose to design cabins immersed in natural surroundings, seeking to foster a deeper connection with nature by distancing themselves from the city. While experimenting with different materials and local techniques enhances a stronger bond with the site's traditions and creates a distinct architectural identity for each region, the integration of technological innovations and new construction materials can offer greater resilience to climate change, improve short- and long-term maintenance, optimize construction timelines, and address other key considerations.
In a constant search to find new ways to reduce costs and construction times, modular architecture emerges as an opportunity to implement various methods, technologies, and techniques to design livable spaces using separate repetitive elements such as modules. As Tom Hardiman, executive director of the Modular Building Institute (MBI), maintains, "Modular" is not about a construction product but rather a construction process.
The flexibility of architecture allows it to continuously change and adjust its form in response to technological progress, social and artistic trends, and the collective experiences we undergo. Large-scale global events, such as the transatlantic migrations of the 19th century, the impact of tuberculosis on design, and most recently, the effects of the last major global health crisis (COVID-19), have all played significant roles in shaping the evolution of architecture.
In the context of the climate crisis, the role of architecture and urbanism has been extensively debated, as it represents one of the greatest challenges of this century. It is undeniable that while there are active efforts through policies and innovation to prevent reaching a point of no return, architecture is already adapting to the changes and extreme conditions caused by it. Rather than thinking of a distant or dystopian future scenario, the gradual changes in climatic conditions have been drivers for modifying, through architectural operations, how we conceive contemporary buildings.
The challenge of designing a house with a tight budget and space constraints, together with the essential duty of responding correctly to the requirements of the user, is sometimes one of the most challenging and motivating tasks an architect can face. How can you take advantage of space most effectively? How can you avoid wasted material? How do you anticipate the possible future expansion of the house? And how do you develop a simple design that also delivers value to its inhabitants?
To help you in this process, we scoured our projects archives to select 30 houses that provide interesting architectural solutions despite measuring less than 100 square meters.
