In the centre of Porto, Bak Gordon has built a house as a detached pavilion to complete the space of a 19th century building.

The building, located at the far end of the property’s garden, facing a large pool of water that acts as a mirror, is characterised by a sober, minimalist language that suggests brutalism in its bare geometries and the roughness of its materials.

The epicentre of the irregular geometric layout is the large west-facing common area, a double-height glazed winter garden which also acts as a filter between the outdoor green area and the intimacy of the sleeping area. The ground floor houses, in addition to the full-length living room, the kitchen, library and two trapezoidal bedrooms with adjacent bathrooms, which are similarly repeated on the first floor.

The choice of untreated materials gives the house a warm, welcoming aura. The massive outer volume of pink pigmented cement, interrupted by glass windows with oxidised brass frames, acts as a protective and enveloping shell for the interiors, dominated by “bare” materials: exposed concrete in the floors and ceilings, wood in the cupboards, tadelakt – a full-bodied plaster of Moroccan origin made from lime – on the walls, and “Venetian terrazzo” in the custom-made bathroom elements. To accentuate the soft, earthy look of the interiors, a colour palette of browns and beiges paints the surfaces and furnishings.

A piece of architecture that draws on a design and construction culture based on materiality and essentiality, as if to signify that a domestic hearth needs only a few authentic gestures to warm it up.