Casa ED&JO

The project was to demolish a poor quality single-family dwelling and build another one in its place in the centre of Famalicão, Portugal. The proposal is on a triangular urban plot of land covering an area of 940.80m2. The topography includes a 7.60m slope down from west to east, so the elevations in the corner converge with those on the surrounding roads. Everything was demolished apart from the garage at the lower level, with access from the road. The surrounding walls also hold back the earth, below the street level to the West and above street level to the East. The house has a 367.20 m2 footprint and a gross area of 408.90m2 on two floors. The ground floor, with 99.30m2 surface area was rehabilitated and expanded, preserving the garage, entrance, vertical access and storage area. The first floor, appearing as ground floor from inside the plot, is 309.60m2, and comprises the main structure of the house – service area, social zone and reserved zone (bedrooms). The land is highly exposed because of the different topographies between the adjoining streets. This is why the house sits 1m from the western boundary, below the street and does not show any wall or elevation. It is closed to the North for urbanistic and thermal reasons. This is also why the house is open to the East where light enters the kitchen and the whole of the south-facing front is open under a curved shading cover. The illumination of the other rooms comes from small patios cut out of the volume. Patio 1 allows access from Rua Vieira da Silva; Patio 2 illuminates the dressing room and the bathroom attached to the main bedroom; Patio 3 illuminates the 3 bedrooms and Patio 4 brings natural light into the kitchen and auxiliary spaces.

José Carlos Nunes de Oliveira – NOARQ