Saint Sebastian Street is a singular artery in the urban History of Braga.
Its layout coincides with the Decumanus Maximus of the roman Braga, rising from west to east towards the Forum, and it’s the final leg of both the Via XX (connecting Astorga to Braga partially by sea) and the Via XVI (connecting Lisbon to Braga by land). In consequence, this is an area of high archeological sensitivity.
Designed for a family of five, the D house hides its structural complexity through its volumetric simplicity. Large boxes placed on the highest part of the land organize the interior and outdoor space through their layout and orientation. That way, the house opens up to the outside through the spaces generated between them, while protecting its interior from what doesn’t matter. With a view over the city of Braga, the D house opens onto the landscape and faces south/west from the exterior and interior leisure areas. If, on one hand, the boxes placed horizontally establish a relationship with the surroundings, extending the interior spaces to the outside, on the other hand, the entrance is marked by one of these boxes placed vertically that calls us to its interior and at the same time articulates the two floors of the house.
The Saint Adrian House is a balancing exercise between opposing needs.
The Duarte Pacheco Quarter where it stands, built between 1935 and 1939, was part of the “Estado Novo” (the authoritarian regime that ruled Portugal from 1933 to 1974) social housing policies in a moment of severe lack of residences with minimal hygiene and health standards for the most excluded and disadvantaged classes.
Built under a modest “Português Suave” (Soft Portuguese) style (a state-stipulated national architecture style), these economic houses had granite masonry foundations and exterior walls, as well as wood floor and roof structures. Volumetrically very simple, they featured flat façades with simulated stonework details elaborated with mortar.
Architecture Team: Tiago Do Vale, With Maria João Araújo, Camille Martin, Priscilla Moreira, Florisa Novo Rodrigues, Teresa Vilar, Clementina Silva, Hugo Quintela, Adriana Gomes
Article source: Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design
The project Casas Alcaide is located in the historic center of the city of Braga. The building consists of five floors, four of them above the threshold level with apartments that vary between t1 and t4 typologies.
Article source: Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design
The project “Casa na Praça Mouzinho de Albuquerque” represents the materialization of an exercise of spatial organization within an urban plot with a complex configuration. The location of the building – in one of the main squares in the historic center of Braga, in Portugal – determined the option to preserve the existing volume and façades, and also some characteristic elements inside. The intervention focused on accommodating a family program properly adjusted to the spatial needs and facilities that are currently required, finding in the existing volumetry a reason (not a condition) for the distribution and design of the spaces.
At the back of the plot, a new construction appears that frees itself from the formal and plastic language of the existing one, simultaneously assuming a gesture of rupture and continuity with the existing building, by extending the material of the floor and the back facade.
The idea was born from the client’s most basic requests; a reformulation of the apartment that would allow for a more fluid circulation, a more practical and visually clean environment without the need for furniture and decoration.
We were approached by a young family, who has a close relationship with architecture, to develop a project that materialized the DNA of Trama Arquitetos. Furthermore, in addition to a harmonious design, the project should focus on the space details. The intention was to surprise, to integrate the exterior surroundings with the interior environment, to merge spaces and create sensations, without discouraging functionality.
A 49 sqm store is located in a 1st generation shopping mall that tries to resist to the abandonedment. Due to its location in the city center there is still some activity although part of the occupation are shops marked by successive transformations that create a palette of suburbanity.
The project itself is ambitious in its attempt of integration by promoting a performative, stylized, simplified space that contrasts in all its valences with its surroundings.
The Fraião house, located in Braga, is a project set up on two floors in a “V” shape, that was conceived to take advantage of the previledged views over the city. The house lies on a densely populated hillside with unique houses and an excellent sun exposure, providing an extraordinary glimpse into the landscape, composing a mesmerizing image.
The project is located in Gualtar, a peripheral area of the city of Braga, north of Portugal, that is under a process of transformation of a rural to a periurban context, with no relevant urban references.
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