Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
“House with four houses” in Portugal by Prod architecture & design
May 15th, 2015 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Prod architecture & design
This holiday house for a family of four is located in the north of Portugal. It’s shape is defined by the same number of individual volumes.They have similar dimensions but distinct orientations. Three of the volumes are orthogonally organized around a core, whilst a fourth rotates to match the direction of an existing neighbouring building. The proximity between the two constructions led to a desired dialogue. The modest dimensions of the existing building determined the scale of the house while the vernacular identity influenced its layout. Each volume has a two slope roof. Besides emphasizing its individuality it enabled to increase the plasticity of the composition.
The volumes are separated but disposed at a critical distance. It creates an interstitial space covered by a flat transparent roof and full size windows. It is a special space with a hybrid character. The considerable dematerialization of its limits leads to be felt as both internal and external.This solution meets the clients requirement to design a house with strong links with the surroundings. When moving from one room to another it allows to comfortably “walk through the leaves”.
The house is organized in three floors. On the basement there is agarage, wine storage and laundry room. On the main floor the bedrooms are located on the east side, while the kitchen, dining room and living room are placed on the west, close to a terrace with privileged view to a valley. Over the living room there is a mezzanine with a small office.
The global coherence of the house highly depended on the material choice. The combination of local granite for the em-basement, patinated pine boards on the walls and zinc on the roof granted a rich silver homogeneity combining different tones and textures.
PROD is a young architecture and design studio based in Viana do Castelo, in the north of Portugal, directed by Paulo Lago de Carvalho and Susana Lages Correia. Both had their graduation from the School of Architecture of the University of Minho in 2005 where Paulo recently defended his PhD thesis and is currently a guest Professor.
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