№ 005 · Cais do Avesso
A Laje
Twelve tracks follow a house built little by little: the plot, the plan, the trench, bricks, the slab, moving in, and the rebars that keep pointing at the sky. The original Brazilian Portuguese page remains available through the PT link.
Track by track
Twelve tracks follow a house built little by little: the plot, the plan, the trench, bricks, the slab, moving in, and the rebars that keep pointing at the sky.
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O Terreno · The Plot
He measures a plot where the weeds, the neighbour’s wall and the figures refuse to line up.
A Planta · The Floor Plan
At the kitchen table she draws a house whose rooms must fit both the children and the budget.
A Vala · The Trench
Stone, dark clay and returning water turn the foundation trench into a patient struggle.
Tijolo Baiano · Bahian Brick
Course by course, she raises a wall and hides one broken corner beneath the mortar.
A Moto · The Motorcycle
He sells the motorcycle, pays the builders’ merchant and waits for the five o’clock bus.
O Dia da Laje · The Day of the Slab
Relatives, coffee, buckets and a borrowed mixer carry the concrete onto the roof before the rain.
A Mangueira · The Hose
Every evening he waters the curing concrete until, on the eighth day, he tests it with his palm.
Lona Azul · Blue Tarp
When the money runs out, a blue tarp covers the cement bags and becomes the children’s goal.
Os Vergalhões · The Rebars
Years pass around the exposed rebars: washing, rust, kites, rain and children on the roof.
A Caixa d'Água · The Water Tank
A blue water tank is wrestled through the house, up the stairs and onto the roof.
A Mudança · Moving In
The family moves in while the walls still shed dust and cardboard stands in for glass.
Vasos de Pimenta · Pepper Pots
Ten years later, a party fills the unfinished roof among pepper pots and borrowed chairs.