summary completes prefab collective housing building 'vale de cambra' in portugal

summary has completed its vale de cambra project (see previous coverage here), a 1000 sqm prefabricated collective housing building in portugal. the project comprises a ground floor level for the multi-services program connected with the surrounding public space and topped by six individual habitational units. these 45 sqm units make the entire upper level, while they are a continuation of summary’s gomos modular systems (see previous coverage here), in which each unit leaves the factory completely ready.

all images © fernando guerra | FG+SG

video © building pictures

drawings courtesy of summary

summary developed vale de cambra with a series of boldly defined requirements from the beginning, which included a fast, cost effective construction that could be changeable over time. these prompted the portuguese studio to use prefabricated elements and leave parts of the project undefined, assuming the immediacy, flexibility and resources optimization as core themes. a continuation of summary’s prototype, which was unveiled as part of the main exhibition of the venice architecture biennale 2016, the project showcases the benefits of the studio’s prefab and modular building systems.

the two-story collective housing project is built mainly in precast concrete, which is directly exposed, without any additional finishing, thus reducing the resources, the manpower and the arts involved in the construction process and, consequently, reducing its environmental impact. ‘this approach has a direct effect in the acceleration of the building process: all its components are fully prepared in factory and quickly assembled in situ, performing at once as structure, insulation and cladding elements,’ explains summary.

vale de cambra comprises two levels: a ground floor level for the multi-services program, which is connected to the surrounding public space; and an upper level of six individual housing cabins of 45 sqm each. each program features an independent access due to the differences between them, which have been placed in different levels, taking advantage of the natural ground’s slope. conceived in a very flexible way, the ground floor is shaped by prefabricated slabs and structural panels in the external perimeter. there, users can adapt the space according to their needs since it’s possible to add or remove compartments, or let the whole floor functioning as a big open space.

the upper floor is all composed of gomos system units, summary’s evolutionary modular system in which every unit leaves the factory completely ready. considering that the maximum building area permitted by law was quite small, the requested empty space was used to separate the housing units. designed and licensed as a collective housing building, with this feature the project offers the main advantages of single houses: clearly individualized entrances and a complete acoustic separation between the different units.