The site is in a rural environment with fragmented construction on land typical of the Minho landscape. The geometry of the plot (a long, narrow strip), its topography (with a gradient towards the West) and the existence of a granite, irregularly shaped wall, have all contributed to the definition of the shape of the house. Three box-shaped volumes are arranged on the plot so as to comply with the brief and build a mass-spatial sequence. The construction is built entirely along the low, horizontal elevation of the plot, stabilising its siting and removing it from the access road. The first volume, parallel to the road, includes the household service area (garage, storage, laundry) and works as a limit for the intervention, acting as a buffer and providing domestic privacy. The main volume, parallel to the wall, is an open-space, ground-floor pavilion, fulfilling the brief for the house (bedroom, kitchen, lounge), designed with great internal fluidity and a strong transparency onto the garden. Between the two, there is a courtyard, characterised by the tension created between the irregularity of the existing wall and the triangular shape resulting from the relative positioning of the new volumes. The composition is completed by a third object, placed on top of the main building; this stands out from the whole set, ensuring privacy and independence to the master bedroom, which is provided with a view to the west towards the beach in Afife, and complemented by the exterior space of the deck that covers the roof. The house is an event that results from the contrast between the vernacular expression of the existing structures and its Malevich-inspired composition.
project:
house in afife
location:
afife, lugar da gatinhosa,
portugal
date:
2001 - 2004
building area:
220 m2
architecture:
nuno brandão costa
collaborators:
andré eduardo tavares,
marta reis,
pedro almeida
structural engineer:
ricardo ferreira da silva
hydraulic engineer:
ricardo ferreira da silva
electrical engineer:
raul serafim barros silva (gpic)
mechanical engineer:
raul bessa (get)
photographs:
arménio teixeira,
luís leite