Portuguese studio DNSJ.arq has completed a cluster of three white houses on the outskirts of a small town in southern Portugal (+ slideshow).
Located just outside Aldeia do Meco, the first of the three houses was designed by DNSJ.arq as a home for the clients, while the other two function as rentable holiday homes.
Two of the houses are located on a flat section of the site close to the street and the third house is positioned behind them, slightly further up the hill.
Architect Nuno Simões said the team decided to arrange each house in a different composition, “almost like a jazz improvisation.”
“We decided to make the bigger house for our client – in the hilly side of the land with the swimming pool – and the other smaller two for rent,” Simões told Dezeen.
“The two smaller houses, which have a more congested situation, were for living mainly on the patios, while the larger house faces a small river with a glimpse of the ocean,” he added.
Each house has brick walls that coated with white render, as well as poured concrete floors. All three open out to patios on two levels and feature their own private swimming pools.
A garage connects the two smaller houses. A pathway leads to the third house, which is twice as big and boasts more bedrooms and a spacious kitchen.
The intervention that is proposed is located within the urban perimeter of Aldeia do Meco. It is a narrow strip towards sunrise/sunset, flat up to about half of the land and thereafter acquiring an pending until the river bordering the west.
The settlement program includes the construction of three houses, two for rent and a residence for the owners.
The first two houses are grouped together (Casa 1 and Casa 2) on the flat part and closer to the street and settled the other house (Casa 3) on the ground to the west.
This house adapts to the topography, adjusting to the presence of existing trees, and enjoying the views through a system of terraces that extend the house outdoors. Unlike Casa 3, Casa 1 and Casa 2, more exposed to neighbouring buildings, enjoy a more intimate relationship generated by a system of courtyards.
Important starting point was the impossibility of any sophistication constructive opting for current building systems.
The banality of the building grew into a minimal architectural lexicon composed of white unequal volumes, but similar in nature. This game was complemented with the austerity of the chosen materials.
News: two Portuguese architects want to transform Porto’s iconic Maria Pia Bridge, built in 1877 by Gustave Eiffel, into a monument by moving the disused structure from its present location on the River Douro to the city centre.
Designed by the French engineer of Eiffel Tower fame, the wrought-iron railway bridge has been out of use since 1991. However, as one of Porto’s most recognisable structures, Pedro Bandeira and Pedro Nuno Ramalho believe it could help the city establish its international identity.
“The relocated D. Maria Pia Bridge would bring a new monumentality to the city,” reads the architects’ proposal. “The bridge would be a monument of the deindustrialisation, where the materiality of the nineteenth century gives place to the contemporary immateriality.”
Bandeira and Ramalho entered the proposal in a competition seeking ideas to revitalise the Aurifícia area in central Porto. Although it didn’t win, the architects insist it could still become a catalyst for urban regeneration.
“By relocating [the bridge] to the centre of the city on a higher position, [it] would regain visibility but mostly another meaning, since it is released of the need of being useful,” they said.
According to the plans, the bridge’s latticed girder structure could be easily dismantled. It could then be re-erected over a period of five months, with a budget of less than €10 million (£8.5 million).
Local journalist Ana Laureano Alves believes the project addresses some of the most important issues facing contemporary architecture.
“Although it may seem extreme in a first moment, I believe that it is an intelligent proposal,” she told Dezeen. “On one hand it is a call for attention of the failure of the urban regeneration policies and, on the other, it is a provocation to the contemporary approach on monuments and history.”
Concept for dismantling the bridge
The bridge currently spans the River Douro in the south-east of the city. With a height of 60 metres and a 353-metre span, it was once the longest single-arch span in the world.
Here’s a project description from the architects:
Relocation of the D. Maria Pia Bridge
Two architects, Pedro Bandeira and Pedro Nuno Ramalho proposed the relocation of the Eiffel’s D. Maria Pia Bridge to the city centre, exposing its actual uselessness (not in use since 1991) and drastically changing the skyline of Oporto.
This proposal was a response for a call of ideas for the urban regeneration of the block Aurifícia in the city of Oporto, Portugal, promoted by the Portuguese Council of Architects. As it seems obvious, it did not win. If at a first glance it looks like as an ironic proposal of nonsense humour, it has also a deeper meaning. This strong gesture would establish a particular identity of the city, unique, bizarre and appealing. It may seem absurd, but in some way it just reflects the absurd that the city already is: the decadent urban landscape that invites the tourists to photograph the building in ruins, abandoned warehouses and factories; a scenario that no urban regeneration policy was able to reverse.
Proposed site plan
Since 1991 the D. Maria Pia Bridge is not at use. With the two new bridges over the Douro River – the Infante Bridge and the S. João Bridge – it lost its scale and dignity; it is hidden and forgotten. By relocating it to the centre of the city on a higher position, the bridge would regain visibility but mostly another meaning, since it is released of the need of being useful. The proposal rescues the beautiful expression “work-of-art” used in some languages by the engineers to refer to the construction of bridges. The originality of the solution would contribute, in a first moment, for increasing tourism and consequently the development of other services. Aside from that, it is more significant the boost of the city’s identity, nourishing the self-esteem of its inhabitants, the fundamental actors on the revitalisation of the city. Astonishingly, the project would be easily executed, both in the constructive and in economical terms. The lattice girder structure of the bridge is light and easily disassembled. It would require around five months for the entire process of construction and a budget of less than 10 million of euros, eight times less than the costs of Koolhaas’ Casa da Música, located in the vicinity. As the Eiffel Tower, the relocated D. Maria Pia Bridge would have a significative impact, contributing for promoting the image of the city worldwide.
Proposed site section
The relocated D. Maria Pia Bridge would bring a new monumentality to the city. New, considering it is far from the classical sense of the expression, as of institutionalisation of History. It is a transgressive monumentality that aims for its permanent actualisation meaning, reflecting the present conscious of its fragility. The Bridge would be a monument of the deindustrialisation, where the materiality of the 19th century gives place to the contemporary immateriality, where there is no space for a bridge that connects just two places. The bridge died, but it died standing, like a tree.
This house by Portuguese architect Miguel Marcelino rests on top of an old warehouse in Torres Novas, central Portugal (+ slideshow).
Miguel Marcelino extended the existing building upwards to create the single-storey residence, which overlooks a valley planted with olive groves.
The warehouse was first built in the 1980s and was originally planned as a two-storey structure, although it has taken 30 years for the second phase of construction to take place.
Marcelino used brickwork for the exterior of the extension, then added white paint to unite the two floors.
A protruding concrete slab divides the two storeys and creates a balcony around two sides of the building, while a similar-sized roof slab forms a canopy overhead.
A bridge with a steel balustrade leads to the house’s entrance from the adjacent hillside and is positioned alongside a large olive tree.
The entrance hall opens out into a living and dining area, featuring a sliced-off south-east corner that increases the size of the surrounding balcony.
Three bedrooms are positioned along the east side of the house, while the kitchen and bathroom sit on the opposite side.
Concrete walls and ceilings are exposed in each room and timber panels covers the floor.
The briefing was to build a three-bedroom house on top of a warehouse built in the 80’s, where part of the roof was made with a flat slab and a small balcony, precisely with that idea of later building the house.
Given the constraints of the existing warehouse, the house shape turns out to be automatically set: a box that rests on the existing structure.
The rooms are placed to the east, the toilets to the west, as well as the kitchen, looking to a centennial olive tree.
The existing balcony will be maintained and “duplicated” as a shading element.
The living room is placed south where its south/east corner is diagonally cut in a way that the balcony could enlarge and offer an outdoor area protected from the sun and rain, overlooking the valley.
A raw concrete interior is contained behind the white limestone facade of this townhouse in Lisbon by ARX Portugal (+ slideshow).
Slotted in amongst a row of traditional Lisbon townhouses, the five-storey residence was designed by local studio ARX Portugal with the same tall and narrow proportions as its neighbours.
The facade of the building is an arrangement of white limestone blocks, broken up by a grid of protruding piers and narrow windows.
“Just as most of Lisbon’s old buildings, it is a flat elevation whose expressiveness comes from its rhythmic nature and the light-and-shade effects produced with the backing-up of its surfaces,” said the architects.
Contrastingly, the rear facade is made up entirely of windows, fronted by steel balconies that overlook a secluded garden.
Walls, ceilings and staircases inside the house are bare concrete. “The precision of the design as well as the inclusion of two doors in most rooms endows the five small floors with a sense of a generous space and gives its dwellers a strong feeling of fluidity and freedom,” added the architects.
The main street-level entrance to the house leads onto the storey above the garden, which primarily encompasses a garage and living room.
The dining room and kitchen are located on the floor below and open out to the paved terrace and lawn.
The first and second floors accommodate bedrooms and bathrooms, while an office occupies the uppermost floor.
There’s also a small roof patio, featuring a small bench and a solitary tree.
The concept for this house emerges from a reflection on the identity of Lisbon architecture, a recurring type of 6-metre-wide and 15-meter-long deep house, ending in a small garden in the back. It is a 5-storey building with two radically different elevations: one “public” in white lioz limestone (the most used in Lisbon) and the one in the back, in glass, connected by an interior world in exposed concrete, punctuated by birch wood elements.
The elevation obviously follows on the Lisbon tradition, stressed further by the windows’ rhythmic structure, opened in a span system created by horizontal strips and vertical bars – characteristic of the city architecture.
Just as most of Lisbon’s old buildings, it is a flat elevation whose expressiveness comes from its rhythmic nature and the light-and-shade effects produced with the backing-up of its surfaces. This apparatus brings the elevation a sense of time, expressed by the change in the shadows throughout the day: from a more subtle morning light – with no direct sunlight – to the strong contrasting afternoon shadows.
Besides a straightforward concern in aligning the elevation with the surrounding lines, the design stresses an obvious contrast between the block-type bottom, and the more dematerialised crest.
If on the one hand the ground floor responds defensively to the narrowness of the street, combined with the fact that neighbours park their cars in front of doors and windows, on the other hand the top comes out much lighter and dematerialised: it is a space at once interior and exterior – a top patio allowing the transition between the lower building, to the south, and the higher one, to the north. Nevertheless, despite its intimate nature, the space allows a view over the surrounding landscape and to the far-off Christ the King statue to the south, along the street line.
On the back elevation we have explored the extreme transparency which extends the interior onto the exterior and opens up the view to the garden – where a splendid Linden tree takes centre stage – leading the eyes from the top floors over Lisbon’s hills, the Tagus river, and the South Bank. Radically opened to the exterior, the generous morning light that floods in directly is balanced by the grey concrete making up all the surfaces.
Inside, the precision of the design, as well as the inclusion of two doors in most rooms, endows the five small floors with a sense of a generous space, and give its dwellers a strong feeling of fluidity and freedom.
The constructive research for this project provides an example in which the whole structure shapes the space and becomes architecture in itself: the whole concrete structure, built with only 3 planes – two gables and a transversal plan – is set forth and designed to define the essential house space.
At once a natural and staged space, of both contemplation and living experience, the garden is expressed as an archeological site, where all layers of time, since the house was built, are present. Here, one can still see the ancient techniques that have raised thick stone walls (often recovered from other buildings), later brick overlays, mortar or paint, as well as the stones from the demolished house that have become pavement.
Location: Lisbon, Portugal Project: 2010-2011 Construction: 2012-2013 Gross construction surface: 436 m2
Architecture: ARX Portugal, Arquitectos Lda. (José Mateus, Nuno Mateus) Work Team: Isabel Gorjão Henriques, Miguel Torres, Joana Pedro, Sofia Raposo, Rodrigo Gorjão Henriques, Paulo Rocha Structures: SAFRE, Projectos e Estudos de Engenharia Lda. Electrical, telecommunications and security planning: Energia Técnica – Gabinete de Engenharia, Lda Contractor: Manuel Mateus Frazão
The long narrow bodies of snakes inspired the shapes of this pair of matching woodland hideaways that stretch out between the trees of a park in northern Portugal (+ slideshow).
Designed by architects Luís Rebelo de Andrade and Tiago Rebelo de Andrade, the structures each offer accommodation for one or two inhabitants at the Pedras Salgadas Park, a rural holiday resort on the edge of a spa town.
The architects aimed to “recreate the fantasy of tree houses”, by designing spaces that sit amongst the tree branches. Rather than climbing upwards, the structures maintain a flat level, which gradually becomes more elevated as the ground slopes away underneath.
Both buildings are constructed from timber, but are externally clad with slate tiles that create the impression of rough scales.
“The characteristic design associated with the slates and the wood on the base suggests a snake gliding between the trees,” said the designers. “Like a wild animal in its natural habitat, the house suddenly appears in the visual field of the observer.”
Narrow columns anchor the structures to the ground and long narrow bridges lead from the hillside towards each entrance.
Inside, symmetrical interiors offer combined living and sleeping areas with a kitchen and washroom on one side and a toilet and closet on the other.
Sustainable technologies such as solar panels and water recycling allow the buildings to be self-sufficient, while low-energy lighting and well-insulated walls ensure that electricity and heating are used as efficiently as possible.
This isn’t the first project Luís Rebelo de Andrade has worked on at the Pedras Salgadas Park – last year he collaborated with young Portuguese architect Diogo Aguiar on a series of woodland cabins.
Along with the project Pedras Salgadas Park by architects Luís Rebelo de Andrade and Tiago Rebelo de Andrade, came the challenge of creating an object that could recreate the fantasy of the tree houses.
The project for these houses was developed in partnership with the Modular System Company. The idea was to get an object that would be far away from the orthogonality and from pre-established concepts associated with the modular construction.
The characteristic design associated with the slates and the wood on the base suggests a snake gliding between the trees. Like a wild animal in its natural habitat, the house suddenly appears in the visual field of the observer.
The choice of materials gives an instant sense of connection with nature at the same time it establishes a coherent image of the proposal into a perfect symbiosis between the house and the Park.
The architects made use of new technology already tested in prototypes that allow a weightless easy-carrying construction. Native raw material, slate and wood used in the finishing also promote the integration at the same time it confers invisibility to the houses, not allowing these to take the chief role which belongs to the centennial Park itself.
Sustainability and ecology have always been one of the major concerns during the development of the project. The consistency and rationale for the intervention were attained by the layers and reinforced insulation, heating systems, water reuse, water solar panels, the low consumption lighting system using LED technology as well as the option of keeping the soil without any impermeable system, among other solutions. Each house comprises a studio with a bathroom and a kitchen.
Thus, the two Tree Snake Houses of Pedras Salgadas Park are objects that, using similar materials and technologies, point out to our imaginary: the primitive hut and the wild animal.
Developed by the architects Luís Rebelo De Andrade And Tiago Rebelo De Andrade in cooperation with Modular System the project also foresees multiple purposes, which can be adapted to different landscapes and climates.
More models of these houses like the Mountain Snake House, the River Snake House and the Sand Snake House, whose dimensions and materials are easily adapted to various climates and regions, are being developed and will soon be available to the public. It will then be possible to acquire one of these houses and to benefit from different situations such as coastal areas, riverbanks, mountain or urban environments.
Architects: Luís Rebelo de Andrade & Tiago Rebelo de Andrade Collaborators: Madalena Rebelo de Andrade, Raquel Jorge, Pedro Baptista Dias Project Area: 27,00 sqm Client: UNICER Constructor: Modular System
Lisbon Architecture Triennale: Portuguese artist Marta Wengorovius teamed up with architect Francisco Aires Mateus to create this small wooden library that can be used by only one person at a time.
On show as part of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the reading cabin comprises a shed-like structure containing nothing but a single bookshelf and a raised seating area.
Daylight filters in through a skylight that punctures the gabled roof.
Marta Wengorovius invited 20 guests to choose books for the library, creating a collection of 60 volumes.
“Sharing this itinerant project creates a community between people who read the books, the guests who chose the books and the people who will read the books wherever the cabin shall pass,” she said.
Visitors can reserve time slots to occupy the library, whether it be an hour or a whole day.
The cabin first opened in Paredes and has since moved to Lisbon. The artist plans to relocate it each year, translating the books into different languages for foreign countries.
Here’s a project description from Marta Wengorovius:
Um, Dois e Muitos (One, Two and Many)
The project is an itinerant library that aims to be a compass of reflection concerning the themes: “One”, “Two” and “Many”. The 60 books in the library relate to: “One” (every single one chosen), “two” (every single one two chosen) and “many” (every single one many chosen).
Cross section
The books were chosen by 20 guests invited to collaborate with the artist and to be part of this project. With the intersection of these various books there is a desire to produce a sort of manifest, a synthesis to enlighten our roots, and searching some earth (roots?). I believe that the truthful ones cross our past and present, and give flowers throughout the ages, enlightening the time that goes by.
Long section
The library was planned to be in one different place per year. If exhibited in a foreign country the books will be translated to the native language of the country.
This art project had its first opening on December 2012 as part of the public art project in Paredes, north of Portugal.
End elevation
Using Instructions
The Reading Cabin is to be used by one person at a time. The books can be read inside the cabin and requested to the entity where the Library is located. Sharing this itinerant project creates a community between people who read the books, the guests who chose the books and the people who will read the books wherever the cabin shall pass. The cabin was designed by Francisco Aires Mateus.
Side elevation
A Project by: Marta Wengorovius In collaboration with: Francisco Aires Mateus and Ana Almada Pimentel Photographs: João Wengorovius Construction: Cenário Perfeito Graphic design: barbara says…
Lisbon studio Aires Mateus used only reclaimed timber to construct this pair of waterfront cabins in Grândola, Portugal (+ slideshow).
Named Cabanas no Rio, which translates as cabins on the river, the two rustic structures offer a rural retreat for a pair of inhabitants.
One hut contains a living area, with a simple counter that can be used for preparing food, while the other accommodates a bedroom with a small toilet and sheltered outdoor shower.
Architects Aires Mateus used recycled wooden panels to build the walls, floors, roof and fittings of the two structures, leaving the material exposed both inside and out.
The edge of the roof sits flush with the walls, plus the wood is expected to change colour as it exposed to the weather.
“The wharf is medieval and assembled with wood,” said the architects, explaining their material choice. “Its identity is kept long beyond the material’s resistance, an identity that allows [it] to change, to replace, keeping all the values.”
With a combined area of just 26 square metres, the cabins were both built off-site and transported to the site on the back of a lorry.
Each was then hoisted into place, framing a small wooden deck that leads out onto a jetty.
The wharf is medieval and assembled with wood. Its identity is kept long beyond the material’s resistance. An identity that allows to change, to replace, keeping all the values.
The project develops two spaces: one to unwind with the support of a kitchen integrated in the same material of the walls; other as a sleeping area with a small bathroom and a shower. The construction is entirely finished in reused wood, subjected to the weather that will keep on changing it. The forms, highly archetypal, are designed by the incorporation of the functions in these minute areas, and by the varied inclination of the ceilings that tension the spaces according to their function.
Name of the project: Cabanas no Rio Location: Comporta, Grândola, Portugal Construction Surface: 26m²
Authors: Manuel e Francisco Aires Mateus Coordination: Maria Rebelo Pinto Collaborators: Luz Jiménez, David Carceller Client: João Rodrigues
This concrete-clad house in northern Portugal by Arquitectos Matos comprises an L-shaped block that folds around a courtyard (+ slideshow).
Portuguese studio Arquitectos Matos designed the single-storey home, named Casa de Mosteiro, for a family living just outside the town of Santa Maria da Feira.
The dark concrete exterior contrasts with the house’s bright interior, which features white walls alongside wooden floors and fittings.
Two adjoining blocks give the house its L-shaped plan. The first contains the dining room, living area and kitchen, while the second accommodates three bedrooms, a bathroom and a study.
Floor-to-ceiling doors slide back to open various rooms out to a wooden deck, which folds around the grassy courtyard and features a small swimming pool.
“The interior spaces are directly associated with the patio,” said the architects. “[It] unifies the different areas of the house and intensifies the daily experiences of the family.”
A flat concrete roof overhangs this side of the building and creates a sheltered patio and garage in one corner.
One wall is tiled with bright-green glazed ceramics, salvaged from the house that formerly occupied the site and belonged to the owner’s parents. The architects refer to it as a “memory wall”.
The site is located on the outskirts of Santa Maria da Feira, surrounded by a diffuse and changing landscape.
The concept of the project comes from the combined interpretation of the functional program of a single-family house with the specific premises of the clients, as from the study of the characteristics of the lot and its surroundings and morphological conditions.
The house is organised in a single floor around a central courtyard, facing South and West, protected from the street on the North side. Shaped as an “L”, it is divided in two parts – a longitudinal volume organised the service areas and the leisure zone, while the bedrooms are located in the shorter volume, transversal to the lot.
An additional volume, a storage room placed in the limit of the terrain, accurately defines the central courtyard.
Access to the house is made from the east side, by a ramp that serves as a transition between the level of the street and the main and service entrances.
At the intersection of the two volumes of the L, a void announces the main entrance, that inward, through its transparency, reveals the central courtyard and leads to the different areas of the house.
The interior spaces are directly associated to the patio, though protected by the porch, that externally unifies the different areas of the house as intensifies the daily experiences of the family.
The living room is an ample space, where the dining and living areas are commonly organised, spatially extending to the outdoor through natural light.
The volume, simple and compact, is coated by an opaque ventilated façade made of prefabricated black textured concrete panels on its public surfaces, whilst its interior walls, facing the private patio, are fully open through their transparency.
The background scenery of the courtyard and garden is framed by the “memory wall”, built out of stones from the demolition of pre-existence.
Designation: Casa de Mosteiro Location: Santa Maria de Feira, Portugal Project: 2008-2009 Construction: 2010-2012 Client: Private Architecture: Arquitectos Matos (Ricardo Matos, Nuno Matos) Co-author: Luís Loureido Architecture collaboration: Huge Gomes
The sprawling topography of the Portuguese landscape provided the shape of this restaurant, guest house and wine showroom by architecture studio Carvalho Araújo (+ slideshow).
Sited just outside the town of Passos do Silgueiros, the building was designed by Carvalho Araújo for Portuguese wine brand Quinta de Lemos as a place where critics and customers can sample and critique different vintages.
Glass walls angle back and forth to give the concrete building its winding plan, which nestles closely to the rugged forms of the rocky hillside.
“The building’s drawing is developed starting from the topography, based in contour lines,” said the architects. “It defines an extensive course that represents the dimension of the territory on which it is placed”.
Visitors arrive at the building after traversing a winding pathway down from the road. Upon entering, they can either head into a large dining room, or make their way to one of three guest bedrooms.
The wine showroom is positioned just beyond, past a private indoor swimming pool that offers far-stretching views across the vineyards and hills.
A pair of long staircases tucked behind the building lead up onto the roof, which is covered with paving slabs and functions as a large viewing platform.
“The building is drawn by the land,” added the architects. “Its openings and orientation respect the main points of view over the vineyard, control of natural light and the discretion that is intended.”
Answering the request for the conception and design for a gourmet restaurant, we developed the project with the idea of a guest house, private equipment as complement of the first. The group intends to relate to the wine production, and to frame this investment in a global brand strategy, instead of an isolated act in the territory.
The guest house doesn’t have a formal reception; the services create an intimate atmosphere, family like and exclusive. The bedroom is not just the private domain; it includes other spaces of social character, which makes this equipment different from the usual offer of temporary lodging. The bedroom is really a small house.
The association established with the wine production justifies the restaurant. It includes spaces for wine proofs, and a reserved area to discussion, analysis and wine critic, suggesting a flexible drawing for the space in all these uses.
The building’s drawing is developed starting from the topography, based in contour lines, as a reference to the platforms and the distant association that unites them in time, characteristic of wine’s production especially in the Douro and Dão region.
It defines an extensive course that represents the dimension of the territory on which is placed and is built in a level quota, being the direct result of the topography.
The building is drawn by the land, and its openings, orientations and internal definition of the program respect the main points of view over the vineyard, control of natural light and the discretion that is intended for the group, in spite of its apparent dimension.
The attractive point where the building is located creates a tension between the existent building and the new construction, being constituted as two poles, forcing the accomplishment of a course to relate them. The implantation of the new construction is just the continuity of that course; a drawing in the landscape, a built course leaning towards the beauty of the linear rhythm of the vineyards.
Architecture: Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design Team: José Manuel Carvalho Araújo, Joel Moniz, Sandra Ferreira, Emanuel de Sousa, Ana Vilar, André Santos, Liliana Costa, Nuno Vieira, Pedro Mendes, Carlos Santos, José João Santos, Leandro Silva
Client: Celso de Lemos Esteves Date: 2007 – 2012 Location: Passos do Silgueiros, 3500-541, Viseu, Portugal
This house by architect Marlene Uldschmidt has been built into the side of a hill in Portugal and features a vertical light well that links its upper and lower floors (+ slideshow).
Located in the fishing village of Ferragudo, the split-level building was designed by Portuguese studio Marlene Uldschmidt Architects with layers of internal and external glass partitions that allow natural light through each of the rooms.
Interior and exterior staircases link the different levels of the sloping site, leading down from a staggered rear terrace to the two main floors of the house, and then further down to the entrance at street level.
“The difficult topography of the site meant that our concept would need to allow for the design of the internal space to strengthen the visual connection with the rest of the village and beyond,” said architect Marlene Uldschmidt.
Built on a narrow rectangular site, the glass, stone and wooden house is squeezed between a pair of neighbouring buildings on the hillside street.
“The challenge was to create a facade which would be a physical barrier between the public and private areas whilst enhancing the visual connection with the village and the river,” added the architect.
A small wooden door at street level leads into a long entrance hall on the ground floor, then through to the spacious master bedroom and the only two bathrooms in the house.
A flight of white stairs appears to grow out from the surface of one of the walls, leading to first-floor kitchen, dining and living room spaces.
The upstairs kitchen and dining area opens out to the rear terrace, which steps up to various gardens and patios.
A rectangular swimming pool, wooden sun deck and a private solarium complete this garden.
Our studio were excited to take on such an interesting project in the Fishing Village of Ferragudo, Portugal.
The historic centre of Ferragudo is an extremely sensitive area to work in and we believed that our intervention should be balanced harmonious and above all integrate with the surrounding architecture and history.
The studio decided to explore the concept of “LIVING BEHIND THE WALL” ! connection.
The challenge was to create a facade which would be a physical barrier between the public and private areas whilst enhancing the visual connection with the village and the river levels.
The difficult topography of the site meant that our concept would need to allow for the design of the internal space to strengthen their visual connection with the rest of the village and beyond.
The concept we chose was to use the changes of level within the site in order to achieve this goal.
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