House in Alcácer do Sal

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The house is located in the urban core of Alcácer do Sal, next to a small square, irregularly shaped, where four streets converge and intersect while negotiating with the steep topography of the place. The plot, also shapeless, is limited by a high wall that regularises the slope, supporting the neighbour´s garden, on top, and by two buildings of different natures: to the south, a traditional one-story house and to the north a house from the 1970s, uncharacteristic, whose façade plan is receded.

The project attempts to darn all these realities by drawing a wall in continuity with the lower house to the south - forming the entrance ramp - and by drawing the facade in the recessed plane - seted at the same height as the neighboring building that constitutes the northern boundary. It is, moreover, this orientation which will then give rise to the volume that stands alone, thus creating an outer space of shade and protection, narrowed in the vicinity of the support wall where, desirably, climbers and moss will grow, among the stones and diversified bricks that constitute it. On this wall, at the entrance, a triangular cavity contains a fountain. At the end, where the channel narrows, the connection to the upper floor is established, giving access to a set of patios, where there is a swimming pool and a belvedere to the river. This belvedere, in turn, connects directly to the kitchen - a space with a double height ceiling, which is elevated in relation to the ground, mediating the distances between the two planes and closing the circle.

We imagine this house as a house of dreams and pleasure, a house where water and eyes meet, seeking the shade.

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architecture

Pedro Matos Gameiro

design team

João Lopes, Raquel Batista Pereira

structures

João Paulo Cardoso - PRPC, engenheiros

project year

2018 - 2020

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