Geotest

Solar village

• Location: Cabiri, Angola
• Solution: Buildings
• Type: Civic, social and religious
• Architecture: Costa Lopes Arquitectos / José Forjaz Aquitectos
• Client: Sonangol Holdings
• Scope: Foundations and structure
• Area: 2115m2
• Project: 2011
• Construction: 2013
• Photography: Manuel Correia
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Aldeia Solar is located in the Comuna of Cabiri, about 50km from Luanda. More than settling and housing about 500 low-income families, it aimed to guarantee an agricultural community with the possible self-sufficiency in water and energy, but also in social services.

The project developed by Betar corresponds to the support buildings, for the social services. There are 5 different buildings, which include the Administration and the Health Center, the School, the Training Center, the Sanitary and Laundry Facilities, and the Market.

Although each building has a different area and shape, adapted to the program, all will have a similar structural modulation, formed by spans of 7.0m and cantilevers up to 2.3m, 3.5m apart, with reinforced concrete foundations, columns in reinforced masonry, mixed steel-timber beams and cold formed profiles. This regularity and structural repetition allows for an optimization of the construction processes and consequent cost reduction.