Antonio Pedro Coutinho shared with us the designer with access Dugachard Estelle, Fabiana Araujo, Ricardo Caruana Nanda Eskes and competition for the expansion of the Museum of the Environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main challenge was to find a way to insert the architecture in a rare ecosystem: the Botanical Garden of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The project aimed to be an example of how human construction can coexist with nature. Because the environment of the museum, the project itself should be thought of as part of the educational process of visitors through the building so that coexists with the ecosystem. Thus, the project interacts with the natural environment from design and the selection of materials.
The botanical garden of Rio de Janeiro is located at the intersection of several mountain ecosystems such as forests, watersheds and wetlands sources. The problem with this complex environment is suffering serious damage in the rainy season, causing major flooding in parts of the year. Therefore, projects should create overflow areas on the landscape so that rainwater can be stored, reused in the same building and park maintenance. This also allows you to explore the different Brazilian aquatic ecosystem, with a huge variety of plant species added to the collection of botanical garden. Clearly, the landscape design could open the possibility of treating the waters of a natural and harmonious.
The building concept was designed to investigate the historical types of buildings in botanical gardens and the techniques used in the construction of native huts, choosing as main material reforested pine (Pinus caribaea). Its external structure was designed as a membrane that work to control the climate and at the same time generating a steady relationship entity internal and external spaces. The project’s main aim is to introduce visitors to natural habitats, showing how architecture can be capable of being benefited by the natural processes of its environment and open up to him.
