Casa do Mel is designed to safeguard the Amazonian ecosystem

Casa do Mel (Honey House) is just a small piece of a broader socio-economic strategy to preserve the Brazilian Amazon from deforestation and land exploitation. As the name suggests, the building designed by Estudio Flume is a workshop for a cooperative of beekeepers made up of 53 local producers, who will be able to process the honey here. The thermal and luminous comfort and its relationship with the particular climate of Canaã dos Carajás are the main factors determining the architectural choices of the Brazilian studio. 

In order to better ventilate the building and to economically resolve land level change, the structure is lifted from the ground by concrete pilotis. The double layer roofing, consisting of a concave metal sheet pitch at the top and a concrete floor below, also helps to cool the rooms. Facades feature a belt of openings in the upper part of the volumes, so as to facilitate cross-ventilation of the interiors. The dining room is instead covered with perforated concrete blocks, so as to make the room open, but shaded and well cooled.

Casa do Mel incorporates other sustainable strategies, such as a rainwater collection system, a compost heap to produce fertiliser from organic waste and a grey water filtering system to prevent soil contamination. In response to development models that are extractive and disrespectful of Amazonian natural heritage, Estudio Flume proposes a sensitive architecture based on technical rather than compositional choices, considering the fragile relationship with nature as the most important element from which to formulate the project.