Hasta La Ideas

Four courtyards are cut into the asymmetrical white roof of this Portuguese house by ARX Portugal Arquitectos and Portuguese architect Stefano Riva.

The two-storey House in Possanco has a completely white exterior with concealed guttering and window frames.

The largest of the four courtyards breaks through the rear facade to allow residents a view across the plains.

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Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here is some text from ARX Portugal:

House in Possanco

The cultural meeting point joining the house owners and the architects was based on their common interest: an undoubtedly contemporary architecture, but one whose nature and final expression would also be the outcome of a research of the paradigms figuring in the traditional architecture of the region, the Alentejo.

The implantation terrain of this small house, located in the village of Possanco, sets the transition area between the new urban strip and the protected agriculture zone.

An extensive northbound plain ends far away at the splendid Arrabida mountain ridge. Sparse water spots of the river Sado spreading, and the Atlantic Ocean defining the horizon complete this scenario of a bold pictorial expression.

The owners wanted a small vacation house that allowed a casual and relaxed enjoyment of their weekend when escaping the urban everyday stress. Our minds were for so long populated by images of the so-called popular architecture, produced before the technological era.

They are small houses with sometimes asymmetric roofs, with one of the two garrets longer, almost disproportionate, reinforcing the compact aspect of volumes very much committed to the land where they are built.

These long roofs make the houses cosy during the extremely hot summers and yet sober in the winter.

The presence of these houses on the Alentejo plains, allied to the whiteness of their lime painting bringing out an almost abstract figure, compose portraits of a singular and surprising beauty.

The first relevant constraint is the triangular shape of the small lot which, when applying the legal distance measures, almost does not allow any formal alternatives.

Conceiving the house had still to face a paradox: the most interesting views stand to the north and not south, where the windows should be placed in their quest for light.

At south there is the street, traffic and passers-by whose look inside the house owners wanted to avoid.

These two aspects ended up being the key-features of the project and the solution would end being the introduction of yet another paradigm in traditional architecture: the patio.

The volume is determined in blueprint by the regulated distances. In profile, the maximum height permitted is reached by the back wall (2 floors) and the front wall, facing the street, stays with the minimum height possible (1 floor). To the passer-by, the result is a house of deformed perspective, in axonometric projection.

In order to receive natural light to the south, we introduced in that long plan 4 patios: a central one, one in the living-room, one in the social toilets and a final one near the children’s room.

Almost all situated north, the windows guide the views to the amazing landscape.

We explored the expressiveness of the white block and its abstract personality. The totality of the volume would be white, roofs included, where the patios resemble bluish excavations, enhancing delicately the strong character of the house.

In fact, the building is done almost exclusively with the Alentejo repertoire:  white matter, light-shade, thickness/mass, texture.

Indoors, rooms occur in between “suggestions” of the traditional two-garret volume, and variations in scale and depth transform in each chamber the atmosphere of that inner world intentionally sober.

In the middle of the living-room, the kitchen-island takes on the ancient role of the fire as a centre-piece of the home, around which everything comes to place.

Address: Herdade da Comporta, Possanco, Alcácer do Sal, Portugal
Project: 2006 – 07
Construction: 2008 – 09 (estimated)
Gross Construction Surface: 250 sq m

Architecture: ARX Portugal Arquitectos – José Mateus, Nuno Mateus, with Stefano Riva
Project Team: Stefano Riva, Paulo Rocha
Structural Engineering: SAFRE, Projectos e Estudos de Engenharia Lda.

See also:

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House in Paço de Arcos by Jorge Mealha Arquitecto	House in Tróia by Jorge Mealha Arquitecto	House SGLight by Grau.Zero

Photographer Fernando Guerra has sent us his images of a public passage and gallery in Vila do Conde, Portugal, designed by Portuguese architect Manuel Maia Gomes.

Called Galeria.Solar.S.Roque, the staircase and elevator lead between two old buildings to a square eight meters below.

The staircase is made of concrete with a red pigment and features a large window of brightly coloured glass panels.

Artworks are displayed behind glass-lined walls along the corridor and parts of the original sixteenth century building are left exposed.

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The following information is from the architects:

The project concerns the construction of a passage through two buildings leading to a square which lies eight meter below, leveled by one elevator, inside the staircase. The passage works like an exhibition space, for paints, sculpture and video arts.

Conducts directly to the “Galleria Solar”, gallery which is specialized in cinematic art video and shortcut films. There is also a city bookshop. The original building was constructed in the sixteenth century, being deeply transformed in the eighteenth century.

The refurbishment is done after the building was totally ruined. Being the passage a public space, which is opened from 8:00 am until 12:00pm, the art is protected by glass panels which are provided with natural heating and ventilation.

In the middle of the passage, we leaved some remains, testimony of the sixteenth century original building: a stone portico and some steps characteristic of this period. In the first floor and in the attic, the space is converted in one student residence with eighteen sleeping rooms, kitchens and living spaces. Here, the strategy of the project is different.

While in the ground floor, all the stone remain nude, without plaster and the floor are made of stone or cement, in the student residence, the space has been treated in terms of comfort: the floor was paved with wood and the walls are plastered and painted.

Being one temporary residence, the common spaces communicates with the gallery through transparencies, communicates also at the level of the attic with city monuments through windows placed specifically to guide the viewing angles.

The presence of the colored glass helps to make the transition between the historic manor house build in stone and the staircase constructed in pigmented concrete. Both materials went through unfinished treatments, evidencing the imperfection of the mankind.

The space with the colour glass iluminate the passage wich incorporates a space for art exhibitions, introducing a section of cinematic gallery inside.
By this way, people meet art when walking through the city public spaces, being directly confronted and surprised by the regular exhibitions of the gallery.

It combines the old with the new design, taking the atmosphere and ambience of gothic vitrals into contemporary architecture.
The way that the luminous color panel is seen at the entrance of the building, attracts people to come and see the bright colors: the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Gallery was designed taking into account the principles of reuse of construction materials. The granite, building material which predominates in the building complemented with pigmented concrete, used in the construction of stairs and lift box. This project exposed the enormous capacity for conversion of the granite material seen as natural and environmentally friendly.

The huge thermal inertia of the granite associated with its high density, permits this material to be used as heat accumulator during the summer, releasing the energy accumulated during the winter months, thereby avoiding the use of forced air-conditioning spaces. Our little contribution to the desirable sustainability.

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Visitor Center by Standardarchitecture	Educational Centre by Alejandro Muñoz Miranda	Sugamo Shinkin Bank by Emmanuelle Moureaux

Portuguese studio Jorge Mealha Arquitecto have completed a house in Lisbon, Portugal, featuring clusters of rectangular volumes and courtyards.

Called House in Paço de Arcos, the building sits on a sloping site and the volumes have been arranged in such a way to maximise the amount of sunlight that enters the interior.

A central glazed walkway connects two parts of the structure.

The house is finished primarily in white.

Photographs are by Fernando Guerra, courtesy of the architects.

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The following information is from the architects:

House in PaÁo de Arcos

Located at Alto do Lagoal in PaÁo de Arcos, a neighborhood of Lisbon facing the sea, this house has been built on a sloping site and proposes as main strategy an arrangement of several solids in order to attenuate the overall mass due to the functional program requested by the client.

This arrangement of different solids and voids, uses large plain surfaces and some in-between tensioned spaces to let light draw or reflect on the objects, emphasizing geometry and proposing a changeable reading of form and space during the day.

Some surfaces, covered by metal screening/shading devices, create large smooth textured plans on two facades of the house hiding windows and enhancing form, acting also as a kind of diaphragm device to filter the views between interior and exterior.

Also act as a passive sunshade control between internal and external spaces.

Some circulations, as the staircase and main corridor are built in white painted 10mm metal sheet slightly detached from the walls, leaving opportunity for light, caught by the long skylight to pass in between and spread to the lower floors.

The external envelope, a ìin situî concrete structure, integrates a double row masonry of perforated ceramic blocs as external walls, including inner rigid thermal insulation panels.

External walls finishes are in cement plaster painted.

Windows are in standard natural aluminum color profiles integrating double thermal glass.

In the interior, the walls main finish is plaster painted in white except in the bathrooms where the walls are covered in white/grey natural striped marble.

The circulation areas floors, corridors and staircases are in plain or folded 10mm thickness metal plates, painted with white mate epoxy enamel.

The bedrooms floors are finished in industrial wood parquet whit colorless wax varnish finish.

Social areas are covered with polished white stone and kitchen in brilliant black ceramic sandstone.

Architect: Jorge Mealha

Design Team: Arch. Jo„o SÌtima, Arch. LuÌs Banazol, Arch. Pedro Pereira, Arch., Marcelo Dantas

Location: Alto do Lagoal, PaÁo de Arcos, Lisbon, Portugal

Client: Margarida e AntÛnio Lemos

Use: Single Housing

Site Area: 907 m2

Building Gross Area: 388,50 m2

Floor Net Area: 302 m2

Landscape Area: 629 m2

Coverage Ratio: 30,6 %

Gross Floor Ratio: 77,74 %

Project Year: Sept. 2003-March 2004

Construction: 2006-2010

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House in Tróia by Jorge Mealha Arquitecto	House in Meco by Jorge Mealha Arquitecto	Black & White House by AGi architects