Modular Itapororoca is a set of two houses and a pavilion for common use located in the middle of a coconut grove between the river and the sea, on a peninsula on the southern coast of Bahia. This project is the first to be built with the modular system developed by the UNAbv office in partnership with Crosslam, a pioneering company in the manufacture of engineered wood in Brazil. The project focuses on sustainable construction and is based on the use of reforestation wood. The adoption of this system, which is based on an assembly process, proved to be very suitable for enabling construction in a remote and difficult-to-access location. Based on a shallow foundation and a suspended concrete slab, the wooden structure, in addition to beams and pillars in MLC (Glued Laminated Timber), includes walls in wooden panels in CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) and a cover plate as well. in CLT. Construction is quick and site operations are optimized, allowing greater agility in assembly, guaranteeing the quality of execution and practically no construction waste. These are conditions that minimize the impact of the new construction on the land, with little earth movement, preservation of natural drainage lines and native vegetation. The set is divided into 6 modules, with a single floor, which are interconnected by a wooden deck path suspended from the ground. This allows the modules to integrate into the vegetation and local landscape, and makes them practically invisible from the beach and river, maintaining the original appearance of the surroundings.

The modular system developed is made up of modules that adapt to different programs and dimensions and that also adapt, with great efficiency, to multiple topography, views and sunlight situations. The system understands the construction site mainly as an assembly process, which shortens deadlines and minimizes construction waste. The incorporation of solar panels for water heating, photovoltaic panels, rainwater accumulation tanks for reuse and sewage treatment through a domestic biodigester becomes a self-sufficient unit. The project was developed on a BIM platform, which allowed the correct design of the entire construction operation, which begins with the production of wooden parts: precise cutting and machining. It also allows the analysis of the performance of design choices, in addition to precise monitoring of the work in progress. This decision in the design process allowed all infrastructural systems to be incorporated into the three-dimensional model, and resolve eventual conflicts between disciplines – concrete structure, topography, electrical, hydrosanitary, air conditioning and energy installations. The innovation lies, therefore, in the use of a material applied since the first homes – wood – in a cutting-edge constructive technological context, extracting maximum performance from the computational design, with a focus on sustainability.