The existing house to be remodelled and extended, a 1940s building, was part of a working-class neighbourhood in Porto typical of the time: a traditional-popular building, organised with very small usable areas, no comfort facilities and already showing some constructive degradation, natural given its longevity and lack of maintenance. The requested programme called for an extension of the area in order to gain some useful space and functionality, the reconfiguration of the facilities and support areas, as well as bringing the existing building into line with current welfare and energy regulations. Based on the figure of a courtyard, the entire ground floor area was reconfigured through a continuous pan-de-verre, which visually opens up the small, circumscribed space to another scale and spatiality: the garage is transformed into a small complementary studio, while on the opposite side a new body stretches out over the plot, leaning against the retaining wall, to add the kitchen and laundry room. This frees up the entire ground floor of the old house to create a single, more fluid and flexible space. The U-shaped glazed façade unites all these spaces and articulates the succession of functions: it creates a new atmosphere of comfort, quality in the relationship with the outside and greater natural light.
project:
house in vilarinha
location:
porto, portugal
date:
2021 - 2024
building area:
190 m2
architecture:
nuno brandão costa
collaborators:
anna kazimirko
structural engineer:
miguel guimarães (struconcept)
hydraulic engineer:
miguel guimarães (struconcept)
electrical engineer:
nuno topa (struconcept)
mechanical engineer:
nuno topa (struconcept)
photographs:
andré cepeda