JF House in Aroeira

This is the third project of the Aroeira's golf allotment, in Caparica. In this particular case, the major contingent of the project was the result of the lot's configuration, a perfect hexagonal shape inserted among a tight net of equally hexagonal lots.
The public license limited the construction to the interior of a 20 metres of diameter  circle, for a two-storey house building, and one in basement, for parking or storage area.

Being the rectangle the most recurring shape in a house design, we had already figured a project bound by geometry: a rectangle placed inside a circle, this one centred inside the hexagonal lot.

The later development of the project comes out of the study of the immense potential given by the confrontation or the mismatch of the previously imposed and desired shapes, and from the tension arisen from their concentric boundaries. These were the essential themes for the project, in which we aimed to design a house among and beyond such obsessive and determinant constrictions.

A special care was therefore taken, given the conditioning, when designing and dimensioning of the openings, in the relationship of the inside areas with the natural light and the garden and, at the same time, in the assurance of its privacy. This element became a very delicate factor in the design, given the number of neighbour houses (six) and their close vicinity.

Location

Urbanização Golfe da Aroeira, Caparica

Project

2000 – 01

Architecture

ARX PORTUGAL, Arquitectos Lda.
José Mateus
Nuno Mateus

Work team

Paulo Rocha, Marco Roque Antunes

Structures

Safre, Projectos e Estudos de Engenharia, Lda

Area

280 sqm