Italian studio Mixtura has created a convent in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil with multiple buildings arranged around open-air cloisters wrapped in a wooden brise soleil.
Mixtura, a studio based in Rome, Italy, completed the 5,300-square metre Convent of the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany (FFB Convent) in 2022.
Located in the São Cristóvão neighborhood of Salvador de Bahia, the convent serves as a safe meeting place for a large community in one of the most dangerous areas of Salvador de Bahia.
The Convent of the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany serves as a safe meeting place
The convent was designed to reflect the mix of Western and African cultural influences in the area and the hospitality of Franciscan and Marian practice, the studio said. "We reinterpreted the classical introverted conventual typology, multiplying the number of cloisters and thinning out the buildings to allow the wind, which constantly blows from the east, to reach all the buildings and open areas," the studio said.
More than ten forms are organised around green cloisters
More than ten individual forms, each holding its own program, are organized around five green cloisters and connected by three large roof systems.
"Each building maintains its own architectural identity, obtained through the declination of the wooden element, which sometimes has a bioclimatic function, sometimes it is a structure and cladding," the studio said.
The wooden church has pivoting panels
The central spa...