Jucão Seed House
by Laboraterra Arquitetura & Alain Briatte Mantchev Arquitetura
Quilombo do Nhunguara, Iporanga, São Paulo, Brazil
Project details
Year
2025
project year
2021
building area
42 m²
project website
Team credits
architects
-Laboraterra Arquitetura-
Alain Briatte Mantchev,
Luciano Ribeiro Bottino.
contributing partners
Akemi Hijioka,
Construction: Artesania Engenharia,
Builders: Quilombo Nhunguara.
commissioned by
Instituto Sócioambiental Vale do Ribeira,
Rede de Sementes do Vale do Ribeira / Viveiro Sítio Pedra,
Good Energies | União Europeia.
The Jucão Seed House emerged from the needs of the Ribeira Valley Seed Collectors Network, a cooperative dedicated to restoring Brazil’s largest remaining tract of Atlantic Forest. The building provides controlled storage for up to four tonnes of native seeds, preserving them before use in large-scale reforestation efforts. Developed in close collaboration with the Seed Collectors Network, the design replaces an initial cement-based plan with rammed earth construction – aligning ecological performance, such as passive humidity and temperature control, with cultural continuity and local building traditions.
Located in Iporanga, in the Ribeira Valley, the project sits within one of Brazil’s most biodiverse yet historically marginalized regions. Here, Indigenous and Quilombola communities have long faced systemic inequalities. For the seed collectors, restoring degraded land is not only an ecological mission but also an act of cultural resistance and renewal. When the Network requested a secure space for seed storage, the initial concrete design felt out of step with these values. The project became an opportunity to integrate ecological principles, revive traditional building techniques and root technical performance in cultural meaning.
The Seed House is conceived as a protective vessel – compact, grounded and deeply tied to the land. It contains an 18 m² sealed chamber, maintained at 16°C and 55% humidity, alongside a shaded veranda for receiving and sorting seeds. The building balances precision and symbolism: its walls are literally made of the same soil from which the future forest will grow. The design allows the structure to operate simultaneously as a technical facility and as a collective gathering space.
The Seed House faces the existing nursery, forming a small plaza that functions as a social hub. Its elongated volume and generous roof overhangs protect the earthen walls and frame the relationship between architecture, seeds and forest. Inside, the airtight seed chamber ensures proper conservation, while the veranda offers an open, adaptable workspace for daily activity and exchange.
Rammed earth walls – stabilized only at critical points – provide the building’s thermal mass, passively regulating temperature and humidity. Local gravel and sand give the walls texture and colour, revealing layers like geological strata. A lightweight roof extends 1.6 m beyond the structure, protecting the walls from rain and direct sun. Concrete slabs at the base and roof ensure airtightness, while all other elements are natural and recyclable.
The project reintroduces rammed earth construction, a technique historically used in Quilombola homes and cooking stoves, now revalued within a contemporary architectural framework. Built by local hands, it strengthens circular economies and transfers knowledge across generations. The community named the building after Jucão, a recently deceased leader of the Seed Collectors Network, transforming the architecture into a vessel of collective memory and continuity.
The Jucão Seed House thus stands as both infrastructure and symbol – ensuring biodiversity restoration through the preservation of seeds, while reinforcing cultural pride and local construction traditions. It shows how architecture can fulfil technical requirements and, at the same time, nurture ecological regeneration and cultural resilience. Through its form, process and materials, the project embodies a model of architecture that grows from and gives back to the land.
The Jucão Seed House was realized through collaboration between architects, researchers and members of the Quilombo Nhunguara community, combining technical expertise with ancestral knowledge to create architecture that is both functional and deeply rooted in place.
Alain Briatte Mantchev, architect and urban planner with a specialization in Earth Architecture from CRAterre (ENSAG, France), has worked extensively with Caiçara and Quilombola communities in São Paulo’s North Coast and Ribeira Valley, reviving vernacular traditions and earth-based building methods. Luciano Ribeiro Bottino, also an architect and urban planner, holds a degree in Public Policy Management (FESPSP, 2014) and focuses on the intersections of architecture, social organization and the socioecological dimensions of construction. Akemi Hijioka, consultant architect and lecturer at the Federal Institute of São Paulo (IFSP), holds a PhD from the University of São Paulo. Her research centres on sustainable construction, heritage restoration and earth and timber techniques, adding academic depth to the participatory process. Members of Quilombo Nhunguara played a vital role in the construction, contributing labour, local skills and cultural knowledge. Their participation ensured that the project remained grounded in the community’s values and identity.
The prize money will fund strengthening the Jucão Seed House as both a centre for Atlantic Forest seed storage and a cultural hub for education and exchange. Planned actions include upgrading the storage system with a double-door seal and monitoring equipment, expanding the reception area for school groups, and adding furniture and lighting to improve usability and visibility. The team will also organize training workshops in earth-building techniques, ensuring that local craftspeople can maintain and replicate the structure. As a multifunctional space, the Seed House now serves Quilombola seed gatherers, the Nhunguara community and visitors alike – becoming a regional reference point for ecological education, cultural tourism and community self-sufficiency.
- Information for the project text was provided by Laboraterra Arquitetura, Alain Briatte Mantchev Arquitetura -
Image gallery
Advisory Committee Statement
‘Jucão Seed House’ receives the award for Local Scale for the innovative way it combines beautiful architecture with a strong ecological function: providing a safe and healthy space for storing seeds essential to the maintenance and regeneration of Brazil’s forests. The makers are commended for reviving traditional rammed earth techniques, transforming the building itself into a statement – natural, regenerative and deeply symbolic. Economically, the project holds great value, generating an additional source of income for the local community. The design’s simplicity and clarity are guided entirely by function and logistics: the careful reception, pre-sorting and preservation of seeds. Jucão Seed House exemplifies how a minimal yet elegant structure can address a global challenge.