In a residential neighbourhood to the south of Porto, Helder da Rocha Arquitectos has designed a sculptural and minimalist single-family home that stands out vigorously from the surrounding anonymous building context. The two-storey building sits on a steeply sloping rectangular plot. In order to meet the client's request to keep the volume contained, the studio proposed the creation of a patio to the south which dilutes the cubage available by regulation, and creates an internal void around which the whole house "revolves". At street level, there is the entrance and the sleeping area; on the lower level, the common areas that open through large windows onto the garden and the courtyard. The construction is deliberately closed and introverted with respect to the outside to protect domestic intimacy, privileging internal introspection towards the protected areas of the garden and the patio from which light and natural ventilation diffuse.
In Portugal, a house that revolves around the patio
An introverted and essential dwelling is distributed around an interior garden that lightens the full-bodied volume and creates an intimate and protected domestic landscape inside.
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- Chiara Testoni
- 31 March 2023
- Lousada, Portugal
- Helder da Rocha Arquitectos
- 230 sqm
- residential
- 2022
The immaculate white tones of the exterior facades and interior cladding give a radiant aura to the spaces, caressed by the Portuguese sun. The interiors are characterised by a warm and cosy atmosphere, where the diaphanous surfaces of walls and ceilings seem to float on the material wood flooring.
- Casa em Santa Marinha
- Helder da Rocha Arquitectos
- Helder da Rocha
- Lousada, Portugal
- FHF Construções
- SL Paisagistas
- : EC - Unique Building Solutions
Photo by Ivo Tavares Studio
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