The primitive hut has occupied a prominent place in the history of modern architecture from various perspectives and through various authors, such as Vitruvius, Marc-Antoine Laugier or Gottfried Semper. This kind of caravan without wheels is, to a certain extent, our primitive hut. In this case, however, it doesn’t function so much as an archetype, but rather as the prototype of a possibility: that of turning every building site into a local atelier. It is said that it was common for Lina Bo Bardi to set up her own workshop on the building site, so that it would be easier to think about the project in close proximity to the rest of the workers. In this sense, this hut was designed to be installed on the site of the first construction project our studio had beyond walking distance, in Baião. To be built with as few gestures as possible, each material used in its construction would fulfil both a technical and expressive function in simultaneous.

On the outside, galvanised sheets would solve waterproofing and provide solar reflection, while their undulating shapes would give its façades depth and rhythm. Inside, together with the wooden structure, exposed cork panels would provide thermal insulation and a cosy feel to the living capsule. Nothing in this cabin would be superfluous or redundant. In itself, this irreducible overlap contains a possible perspective on the ecology of architecture. As with the caravans, its shape is the result of ergonomics. In other words, experiment on a certain pleasure of form with obvious repercussions on the pleasure of use. The window would be made of a ready-made skylight, simply applied at 90º. Part of the façade would be movable to allow access from the outside and, even more importantly, to expand the boundaries of its interior onto the surrounding landscape. Because the state of global economy already made the main construction particularly difficult to undertake, this hut was never realized. It had the merit, however, of properly making us understand the meaning of Alison Smithson’s saying: ‘is not that caravans are bad housing… but that most housing is not as good as caravans.’