Architect(s): ARX Portugal Arquitectos
Address: R. João Gaspar Simões 130, Aldeia de Juzo, CASCAIS, Portugal
Latitude/Longitude: 38.72834722170406,-9.44478325805804
Photographs: FG + SG - Fotografia de Arquitectura
In the concept for this small house in the vicinity of Aldeia de Juso, the tiniest area of flat land and the house’s, as well as the high density of the new houses yet to be built in the surroundings, forcibly draw us to some sort of “obsession” about the possibilities of dilating space. Therefore, the importance of “expanding” the outdoor space, underlying this question, becomes a particular central aspect, since it is also a building integrated in a semi-rural area, where people go looking for the experience of inhabiting garden or open yard spaces.
Bearing in mind that by now the question of “limits” and “precincts” has become a common-place, they appear here as being of utmost relevance. We propose, after all, to solve and clarify the question, by widening to the maximum the inhabitable premises in their global scope, by stretching as far as possible the limits that may shape them, both in the vertical and horizontal referentials, in both interior and exterior.
The building has been thus structured in three floors, spatially related in profile, each level having specific and different characteristics.
In Level -1, the areas are laid out (as the regulations so demand) under the contour of level 0. However, this idea of “imposed limits” is to be questioned through the means of “distensions” and “advancements”, to be operated in the three possible directions (north, east and west), shaped as yards and pool. In this floor there will also be included work and service areas.
Level 0, the limits for the “precincts”, appears widened and defined by the walls around the lot. The inner space is freely configured. Consistent with the strategy of maximizing the presence of the gardened outdoor space, the garage is then left aside to an “inserted” area to the south of the kitchen, so that the garden surrounds all social areas. All the social spaces of the building are located on this floor.
On the upper floor resides what is the most significant expression of this project. Until the maximum limits allowed by the regulations, was shaped a kind of enclosure of opaque lines encompassing the bedrooms and their respective yards, thus dilating the enjoyable areas and protecting their necessary intimacy.
Text description provided by the architects.
Engineerings: Marco António Caixa, António Paiva Fernandes, Miguel Luz Marques,
Lanscape architecture: Sara Amaro
Area: 17m2
Contributed by ARX Portugal Arquitectos
