Silver Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design · 2021
Out Of Sight Sustainable Social Building
by Luan Fontes
- A' Design Award 2021 Silver Winner in Sustainable Products, Projects and Green Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: Luan Fontes
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 43,959
- Verification code 2875776841 · Verify this award
About Out Of Sight Sustainable Social Building
Out Of Sight is a social building project designed for Friars Island in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The project uses forty two twenty foot shipping containers treated with thermal insulation, forming a built area of 620 square metres. The containers house a dance school that previously operated beside the neighbouring church and three emergency social homes for local residents. A steel structural system was chosen to keep the construction light, safe and quick to build. The design follows the existing topography and supports access to culture and decent housing.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The place chosen for the implantation was the Frades Island, in Rio de Janeiro. The project was thought during 6 months, with an estimated execution of 4 months. It was proposed the insertion of 42 conteneirs to meet 2 needs: a dance school that previously operated in spaces adjacent to the church and 3 emergency social housing, which would serve as temporary shelter for the residents, always having on mind the necessity of a fast and accessible construction, with materials of easy insertion.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- it was proposed the insertion of 42 conteneirs of 20 foot treated with thermal insulation, totaling a space built of 620 m to meet two needs: a dance school that previously operated in spaces adjacent to the church and three emergency social housing, which would serve as temporary shelter for the residents, always having on mind the necessity of a fast and accessible construction, with materials of easy insertion on the local.
- Tags
- #sustainable, #socialhousing, #socialdesign, #emergencyhouse, #danceschool
- Production Technology
- In order to achieve the objective of keeping the construction light, practical, safe and environmentally friendly, it was chosen to use steel as a constructive system. Thus, in order to reduce the construction and removal time of buildings, it is seen in the container structures a way to solve the most urgent problems of the residents totaling a space built of 620m.
- Design Challenge
- The biggest difficulty of the project was to combine the short period of time of conception and execution, the low budget and the difficult one reaches the place. Also the motivating challenge of designing a 100% sustainable building.
- Project Duration
- The project had a conception time of 6 months and aims to be executed in 4 months. It is located in the northen area of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Specifically, on Friars Island.
- Operation Flow
- The project, together with the political local movements, warns about the need for government/society care towards the remaining population of Frades Island, especially the right to access to culture and decent housing. It comes as a conversation topic the importance of the ancestral preservation, through the generations of families that since the 19th century have been there, whom thanks to the project would continue to inhabit the place and mitigate, therefore, the effects of gentrification.
- Research
- Their project aims to respect the limits of the existing topography, tracing the axis of the street parallel to the neighboring building, a church dating from the 18th century, within the limits of the unified lots, taking advantage, above all, of the space in which it had been the stage of small tenements belonging to the local religious. The project as a whole, together with the political local movements, warns about the need for government and society care towards the remaining population of Ilha dos Frades, especially the right to access to culture and decent housing.
- Inspiration
- The lack of infrastructure, dissemination and planning, make it difficult to explore its potential for ecotourism and research. As a consequence, their entire social, political and economic base is deeply damaged. It is noted that the region has a clear need for requalification of the infrastructures present in the city, which respect the environment, as already mentioned, the creation of new equipment that regains the feeling of belonging of the population that gave life to that region.
- Image Credits
- Student: Luan Fontes.
Academic Advisor: Mariela Salgado.
Colors of Out Of Sight Sustainable Social Building
Get Out Of Sight Sustainable Social Building
Climate-Adaptive Architecture Design Services
We offer sustainable architecture consultation specializing in climate resilience and social impact. Our award-winning approach combines environmental responsibility with community needs, creating spaces that serve vulnerable populations while advancing sustainability.
G0E1 ShopGrand Interview about Out Of Sight Sustainable Social Building
The dual-purpose concept emerged from a moment of contradiction observed on Friars Island. On one hand, families were facing housing precarity due to climate events and infrastructure fragility. On the other, the local dance school was one of the few remaining collective institutions actively transmitting culture, discipline, and belonging across generations. Rather than prioritizing one need over the other, the project reframed both as interdependent. Emergency housing without social infrastructure often becomes isolating and stigmatizing, while cultural spaces without housing security risk disappearing entirely. By integrating both programs, the building creates daily overlap between stability and expression, ensuring that emergency conditions do not suspend cultural life. This approach was informed by community conversations, informal site observations, and the understanding that resilience on the island is as much cultural and social as it is physical.
The decision to use shipping containers was driven by a combination of logistical realism and architectural intent. Friars Island has limited access, constrained construction windows, and high vulnerability to material delays. Containers offered a globally standardized system that could be transported, stacked, and assembled quickly with predictable performance. Beyond pragmatics, their industrial origin allowed the project to deliberately contrast fragility and strength. The containers act as a protective shell for vulnerable populations, while their modular repetition establishes order and clarity. The choice was also ethical: using existing containers reduced material extraction and embodied carbon while enabling a level of structural efficiency that traditional construction methods on the island could not match within the same timeframe or budget.
Preserving the bucolic environment of Friars Island required resisting the temptation to overbuild or aestheticize the landscape. The project responds by concentrating volume rather than dispersing it, maintaining large portions of open ground and existing vegetation untouched. The linear configuration reduces fragmentation of the site and allows natural drainage, wind paths, and views to remain intact. Height and massing were carefully calibrated to sit below dominant natural and historical landmarks. Rather than mimicking rural forms, the building adopts a restrained, infrastructural presence that avoids romanticization while remaining respectful. This approach ensures that the island’s character is not diluted by development but supported by discreet, essential architecture.
Thermal insulation was approached as a long-term social investment rather than a technical add-on. For emergency housing, thermal stability directly affects health, dignity, and recovery. For the dance school, it impacts physical performance, injury prevention, and acoustic quality. Different insulation strategies were layered to respond to each program, combining passive ventilation, thermal mass optimization, and envelope performance. The goal was to reduce reliance on mechanical systems, knowing that maintenance resources on the island are limited. This balance between sustainability and practicality ensures the building remains functional under fluctuating climatic conditions while minimizing operational costs and environmental impact over its full life cycle.
Achieving rapid deployment without compromising design integrity required treating time as a design parameter from the outset. The six-month conception phase was highly disciplined, focusing on decisive structural logic, repeatable details, and early coordination with engineers and suppliers. The four-month execution phase relied on parallel processes: while foundations and site preparation occurred, containers were modified off-site. This overlap eliminated downtime. Equally critical was resisting late-stage formal experimentation. Every design choice was tested against speed, clarity, and necessity. The result was not a rushed project, but a precise one, where efficiency became an architectural value rather than a constraint.
The alignment with the 18th-century church was not symbolic but spatially strategic. The church has long structured collective life on the island, acting as an orienting element rather than merely a religious one. By positioning the building parallel to it, the project reinforces an existing spatial hierarchy and respects inherited patterns of movement and gathering. This decision avoids visual competition and instead establishes a dialogue between permanence and adaptability. The new building acknowledges history without imitation, allowing contemporary social needs to be addressed while reinforcing a sense of continuity and respect for local heritage.
The Silver A' Design Award elevates the visibility of social and emergency architecture within a field often dominated by iconic or commercial projects. In Brazil, this recognition helps legitimize fast, modular, and community-centered approaches as serious architectural work. It encourages municipalities, NGOs, and designers to consider replicable systems that prioritize dignity, speed, and sustainability. More importantly, it shifts the narrative from architecture as image-making to architecture as civic infrastructure. The award strengthens the argument that innovation can emerge from constraint and that social impact and design excellence are not mutually exclusive.
Mitigating gentrification was addressed through programmatic commitment rather than stylistic choices. The building does not introduce external commercial uses or aesthetic signals associated with speculative development. Its functions are explicitly tied to local residents, ensuring daily use by families already rooted on the island. The dance school anchors cultural continuity, while the housing component guarantees physical permanence. This combination reinforces the right to stay rather than the pressure to transform. By prioritizing use-value over exchange-value, the project supports ancestral connections and resists the gradual displacement often triggered by well-intentioned but misaligned development.
Designing the dance school required understanding movement as both spatial and cultural practice. Structural spans were designed to allow uninterrupted choreography, while floor systems were reinforced to accommodate repetitive impact. Natural light was prioritized to reduce reliance on artificial lighting and to support circadian rhythms. Acoustics were carefully controlled to balance music clarity and sound containment. Circulation spaces were intentionally generous, functioning as informal learning and social areas. These elements ensure the dance school operates not only as a training facility but as a cultural commons that supports education, identity, and collective expression.
The modular container system was conceived as an open framework rather than a fixed solution. Units can be added, removed, or reconfigured with minimal disruption, allowing the building to respond to demographic shifts, future emergencies, or programmatic changes. This adaptability is critical in contexts of uncertainty, where long-term needs cannot be fully predicted. The structural logic supports horizontal and vertical expansion, while service cores are positioned to accommodate growth. In this sense, the project is less a finished object and more an evolving infrastructure, capable of adapting alongside the community it serves.