historic ambience

CVDB arquitectos's house is located in a lot with 24 x 120 ft among the historical fabric of the city of Cartaxo, Portugal. The Architects have created a central patio and garden to allow light to go through all spaces of the house during the day. This central patio is an important element of the because this project explores the length of the site enabling its inhabitants to enjoy its different spaces. The house and garden are part of the same spatial entity in the way one may dwell in the house and enjoy both its exterior and interior spaces. The family main social areas are located on the ground floor which also have different headroom, thus emphasising the different ambiences of the house. The stair that connects both floors only has threads and therefore becomes a visual filter between the entrance and the living room and the garden. Large glazed elements acentuates the relation between the several interior spaces and the garden and the north facing courtyard that brings light to the kitchen and to a small office. The first floor is mainly a white entity gently sits above the ground floor. This floor accommodates the bedrooms and a rather more intimate living room with a play area for the children. The Architects made the smaller spaces of the house such as the kitchen and bathrooms in different texture and warm colours to counterpoint the bigger spaces with a more social character of the house.

basaltic lagoon

This project by Aires Mateus intends to evoke the architectural landscape of the Azores, drawing upon the form and material that embed the collective memory of this island and archipelago, that have become, with time, a second nature of this place. With this in mind, the Architects have made the buildings as archetypal volumes, simple and compact and clad with the local basaltic stone. This building asserts itself as the largest of the group to build around the lagoon. The buidling draws on an intermediate space between exterior and interior – the courtyard. This element results from a subtraction to the volume, cutting it from within the central zone to the exterior limit of a facade thus enabling access to the interior. This internal courtyard also becomes the point where the main internal compartments are revealed. The Architects conceived this building as a sculpture - a block of raw matter that is intentionally cut into to capture light and the lagoon itself.

The building for temporary accommodation is a compact volume of four fields compartmentalised into four units. The building is cut in each of the four facades by a wooden threshold that enables the penetration of light and access to each of the accommodation units. There is an established hierarchy of heights between the four spaces related to the solar orientation of each unit. The exterior wall of the building is structural where the necessary infrastructures and services run as oppose to the light interior timber walls.

homogenous roofs

This Aires Mateus project is a response to very specific conditions which is the recovery of existing wood-masonry buildings. The idea of providing a complex with a homogeneous unity under a sloping roof. The Architects design begins with the existing material conditions, depending on their inhabitation potential. After that, the brief suggests the renovation of the masonry buildings, adapting them for use as individual rooms, while one of the two wooden volumes is converted into a two-bedroom pavilion and the other is the pavilion for common areas. Observers would notice that the street entrance emerges through the sandy ground, which is used as a basis for all the constructions. This treated material is spread as paving inside the community pavilion, qualifying the domestic conditions with a sense of natural comfort. The textural continuity of powerful material like sand changes the scale of the interior spaces, making the act of inhabitation a unique poetic experience, fitting for the sort of experience sought for this place.

more than meets the eyes

Consexto created a house that could transform itself in a 44 m/sq space for a useful and livable space. It has 5 spaces, 2 of them completely flexible and transformable by result of a displacement of a cabinet/wall. The cabinet/wall serves as bedroom wardrobe and on the other side rises an extendable dining table, a mini bar and an integrated home cinema. There Architects made sure the passage whenever the living area become greatest, is able to access to a higher niche where the bed is. By doing this, the whole perimeter area gained can be used for storage and placement of a built-in LCD. The basic concept of this design is to maximise the profitability of space. Technology was used extensively to help the Architects aim with the kitchen and toilet equipped with cabinets that blend and automatically glide into the wall, mirrors with monitored exhaustion and all electronic devices (including natural and artificial lighting) are fully controlled by a home automation system applied.

a friends gift

Nuno Brandao Costa designed this house for a close friend. The site is situated in a rural lanscape thus all of the built space was kept at ground level in two separate concrete volumes, grazing against the existing granite wall that set the geometry of the plan. The bedrooms, kitchen, office and garage were condensed tightly together plus sliding doors and panels with very wide openings to the outside. The scale of the site was always present this project as with its very large living room and private suite a floor above. Concrete, plaster with iron oxide, solid wooden frames, old Riga wood flooring, stainless-steel sheet-covering, irregular granite stone are all chosen for the construction of the house and its paths.

yabba dabba doo!!

What do you think of this crazy stone house tucked into the Fafe Mountains in Protugal? Constructed between two giant stones and linked with a concrete mix, the house is rumored to be inspired by the popular American Flintstones cartoon. Although quite unusual, the prehistoric-looking residence does feature some traditional components such as windows, a front door, and even a shingled roof. As you might expect, the house’s design attracts thousands of tourists each year. Who is the Architect behind this? Haven't got a slightest clue. Fred Flinstone I'd imagine.

dried fruit and fish stall

Another project from ARX located in Martinhal, Sagres (Algarve), the furthest southwest location in Portugal. The Architects have made the house white and the roofs flat, as they were often found in the local traditional architecture for drying fruits and fish. The highest and longest volume of the house is located on the north to create and protect a central marble patio from strong and permanent winds. An L-shaped bedroom help create some privacy.

restoring the new

Ílhavo City Library is located in the remains of the Manor Visconde de Almeida, a noble house from the 17th-18th century, later transformed and demolished. From the original building only the main façade, oriented southeast, and the chapel, both in ruins, were left. However, all elements remaining from the old construction were examples of qualified architecture, in their proportion and elegance of the masonry. Due to this, it would be a shame not to leave this legacy and it should be preserved and integrated in the new project. ARX have chosen to design the library but and clarify as well as consolidate the urban fragments and volumes of the space.

The project includes the remaining manor which forms the library, chapel and youth forum. The Architects have used the old façade as a reference point, where administrative areas and programmes compatible with the façade’s rhythm were placed, restoring the character of the original building. Meanwhile, the youth forum establishes direct morphological relations with the surroundings and the chapel, deprived of its important decorative elements is restored. Pedro Calapez made contemporary new furniture and altar panels for the chapel.

volumetric orchards

ARX have created a private house in rural Romeirão, Portugal surrounded with small plantations and orchards. The site faces a steep slope overlooking a small river and mountains. From the Architects first visit, they have suggested a volume lying on the slope with its entrance facing the walkway and secluding itself from neighbours while retaining the views of the southern valley. The long volume whose elements create the primary exterior space becomes part of the terrain. Courtyards are excavated for intimacy and extra privacy.

embed this

A project in Pedrogão, Torres Novas, Portugal by Paulo Henrique Sousa Durão Architects where the Architects have embedded the house into the landscape. Small skylights are inserted in the house to allow the continuity of the interior and exterior play.