House in Possanco / ARX Portugal

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 2 of 17House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 3 of 17House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - FacadeHouse in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Windows, FacadeHouse in Possanco / ARX Portugal - More Images+ 12

  • Architects: ARX PORTUGAL: ARX - José Mateus, Nuno Mateus, with Stefano Riva
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  250
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2009

Text description provided by the architects. The cultural meeting point joining the house owners and the architects was based on their common interest: an undoubtedly contemporary architecture, but one whose nature and final expression would also be the outcome of a research of the paradigms figuring in the traditional architecture of the region, the Alentejo.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Windows, Facade
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The implantation terrain of this small house, located in the village of Possanco, sets the transition area between the new urban strip and the protected agriculture zone.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Windows, Facade
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

An extensive northbound plain ends far away at the splendid Arrabida mountain ridge. Sparse water spots of the river Sado spreading, and the Atlantic Ocean defining the horizon complete this scenario of a bold pictorial expression.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 6 of 17
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The owners wanted a small vacation house that allowed a casual and relaxed enjoyment of their weekend when escaping the urban everyday stress.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 7 of 17
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Our minds were for so long populated by images of the so-called popular architecture, produced before the technological era. They are small houses with sometimes asymmetric roofs, with one of the two garrets longer, almost disproportionate, reinforcing the compact aspect of volumes very much committed to the land where they are built. 

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 13 of 17
elevation 01

These long roofs make the houses cosy during the extremely hot summers and yet sober in the winter. The presence of these houses on the Alentejo plains, allied to the whiteness of their lime painting bringing out an almost abstract figure, compose portraits of a singular and surprising beauty.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 14 of 17
elevation 02

The first relevant constraint is the triangular shape of the small lot which, when applying the legal distance measures, almost does not allow any formal alternatives. 

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Facade
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Conceiving the house had still to face a paradox: the most interesting views stand to the north and not south, where the windows should be placed in their quest for light. At south there is the street, traffic and passers-by whose look inside the house owners wanted to avoid.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 15 of 17
elevation 03

These two aspects ended up being the key-features of the project and the solution would end being the introduction of yet another paradigm in traditional architecture: the patio

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 16 of 17
section 01

The volume is determined in blueprint by the regulated distances. In profile, the maximum height permitted is reached by the back wall (2 floors) and the front wall, facing the street, stays with the minimum height possible (1 floor). To the passer-by, the result is a house of deformed perspective, in axonometric projection.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Facade
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

In order to receive natural light to the south, we introduced in that long plan 4 patios: a central one, one in the living-room, one in the social toillets and a final one near the children's room.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 10 of 17
plan 01

Almost all situated north, the windows guide the views to the amazing landscape. We explored the expressiveness of the white block and its abstract personality. 

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 11 of 17
plan 02

The totality of the volume would be white, roofs included, where the patios resemble bluish excavations, enhancing delicately the strong character of the house. In fact, the building is done almost exclusively with the Alentejo repertoire: white matter, light-shade, thickness/mass, texture.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 12 of 17
plan 03

Indoors, rooms occur in between "suggestions" of the traditional two-garret volume, and variations in scale and depth transform in each chamber the atmosphere of that inner world intentionally sober. In the middle of the living-room, the kitchen-island takes on the ancient role of the fire as a centre-piece of the home, around which everything comes to place.

House in Possanco / ARX Portugal - Image 17 of 17
section 02

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Cite: "House in Possanco / ARX Portugal" 22 Jun 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/145124/house-in-possanco-arx> ISSN 0719-8884

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