House in Sesimbra
Description
This is a remodelling project, unusual to us: there was already a house in the lot, completely isolated from the other buildings, despite the estate not being much bigger that the house itself. It is located within Arrábida Natural Park, next to a geodesic landmark, with privileged and panoramic views over the sea, the mountains and the castle.
The existing house was built by juxtaposition, in a series of additions, along the years, to a small nuclear body of thicker walls. The unified exterior appearance was recent, from the latest additions in the 1980s, and has much thinner walls.
The outcome of this successive expansion was a maze-like rambling house, with multiple miniature spaces, duplicated walls and feeble construction quality.
The space structure was unfit for the new owner’s intended lifestyle and clearly did not enhance its singularity.
The strict regulations of the National Park demands that any building intervention has to be a recuperation, despite the quality, viability or wish for this kind of intervention.
We then decided to thoroughly keep the dwelling’s planimetrics, however aiming for a more land-integrated and subtle construction. The second floor was inverted within the volume and was displaced onto the basement, while the natural ground stretches through the roof.
Coming from the access road above, one can hardly tell it is there.
The landscape rules over the atmosphere. A waving topography of trees and bushes is punctuated here and there by emerging formations of grey rock covered in ochre lichens and black or white spots. The geological context will dictate the concrete’s work, and the house will stand there as another emerging – this time artificial – formation.
Interior spaces gravitate around a wide central area: the living room with the kitchen in the middle as meeting point and resting area.
Despite the tempting and insinuating views, the house searches for a counter-weight in shelter interiority.
Interiors will be rock within the perimeter (concrete), and wood, in structure, walls and floor.
Datasheet
Parque Natural da Arrábida, Portugal
250 m2
ARX Portugal, Arquitectos lda.
José Mateus
Nuno Mateus
Sara Nieto
Structures
Marco Caixa
