INGA Co-living | Laurent Troost

Located one block from the mythical Teatro Amazonas, in the heart of the historic center of Manaus, Co-Living INGÁ presents a new model of community living, integrated with nature. With the aim of encouraging private enterprise to invest in developments in the city's historic center, this small development, consisting of 3 one-bedroom apartments (43m2) and 3 two-bedroom apartments (52m2), was designed to be a living building by being "enveloped" by native plants and PANCs, unconventional edible plants.  

With their large planes of sliding glass, the apartments are large, spacious and have great flexibility of use, guaranteeing a diversity of profiles for the residents. In addition, all the rooms benefit from cross-ventilation and are protected from the sun by the shade that each apartment block casts over the other. Finally, the feeling of community is guaranteed by the sharing of some functions: collective laundry, shared storage room, community vegetable garden, barbecue area and deck with shower and view of the Teatro Amazonas. The removal of service areas from the housing units' program ensured an extremely compact and optimized floor plan, allowing for extremely high efficiency in the development.

In surroundings that are poorly qualified urbanistically and on a street devoid of trees, the project stands out for the transparency on the street level, which dialogues with the public space, and for the abundant vegetation as a manifesto in favor of greenery in historic centers. The vigor of the project, which aims to upgrade a city center in need of small-scale actions and investments, has overflowed the boundaries of the site itself through the increase in public lighting and through the promotion of urban art that has conquered the surrounding walls, with the Amazonian artists invited: Curumiz and Wira Tini.