.png.foto.rbig.png)
Stone: Origins and Future in Architecture
On June 12 and 13, 2025, IUAV University of Venice will host "Stone is…," an international forum entirely dedicated to natural stone. Organized by PNA, this event aims to thoroughly explore the material's enduring value and sustainability, featuring insights from internationally renowned speakers.
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.
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.
- Project:
- Casa em Santa Marinha
- Architectural project:
- Helder da Rocha Arquitectos
- Project leader:
- Helder da Rocha
- Location:
- Lousada, Portugal
- Construction:
- FHF Construções
- Landscape architecture:
- SL Paisagistas
- Engineering:
- : EC - Unique Building Solutions
The Bathroom becomes an oasis of well-being with Laufen
Laufen continues to innovate, elevating the bathroom environment to the heart of daily well-being with two new collections: ARUN and CLEANET AURIA.