The Lighthouse Tower by Mikou Design Studio, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is the an embodiment of its natural and urban surroundings. It summarizes the tropical experience associated with lush South American vegetation, the deep skies of Brazil and the urban landscape. "We have thought up a truly Brazilian tower which symbolizes the imagination, beliefs, myths and memories of Brazilians. One made of sensitive perceptions of light, sound, atmosphere and sensual experiences related to its geographical and urban location."

"An abstraction of the female form, our tower is rooted on the island of Cotunduba and offers itself to the sea via a large jetty. It is designed as an arch at the entrance to the city, a figure that frames the Brazilian landscape by a window cut into the organic shell."

Project name: Lighthouse Tower Rio 2009
Location: Cotunduba Island, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
District: Brazil
Use: Observation points, auditorium, skywalk, bungee jump Platform, climbing tower, gyrodrop, cafeteria, souvenir store, urban balconies, Multi-usage space.
Client: City of Rio de Janeiro
Budget: 17 Millions Euros
Gross Floor Area: 5000 m²
Max.Height: 150 m
Completion period: Competition 2009

About Mikou Design Studio

The two partners, Salwa and Selma Mikou were born in Fes Marocco in 1975. After attending school in Paris (Paris Belleville) and Lausanne (EPFL), they received their diploma on Architecture and Urban design in 2000. They co-founded Mikou Design Studio in 2005.

Mikou Design Studio is a place of creation and experimentation in architecture and its inter-disciplinary cross-fertilization. Mikou Design Studio is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout France, Germany and Morocco, with a focus on cultural, educational, housing and offices.

"We work in a continuous workshop spirit with a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, graphic artists, scenographers and town planners from very different cultural backgrounds. Every project is an excuse for re-questioning and redefining the meaning of a brief, a function, and an urban, social and human context, in order to invent new ways of living, places for sharing and gathering that are more sensitive and more sensual, and which stimulate feelings. Our aim is to get away from preconceptions of form and function in order to transmit more and better. "