ARX

The cultural meeting point between the owners of the house and the architects lay in a shared interest in an unmistakably contemporary architecture whose nature and final expression would nonetheless emerge from an investigation into the paradigms of the traditional architecture of the Alentejo.

The site of this small house, in the village of Possanco, marks the transition between the new urban strip and the protected agricultural area. A vast plain stretching to the north is closed off in the distance by the splendid Serra da Arrábida. Scattered patches of water from the arms of the Sado, together with the ocean defining the horizon, complete this scene of strong pictorial expression.

The owners wanted a small holiday home that would allow for an informal, relaxed way of living during their occasional weekends. Their minds were filled with images of so-called vernacular architecture, produced before new technologies became widespread: small houses with roofs that are sometimes asymmetrical, with one of the two pitches longer, almost disproportionately so.

These long roofs create houses that are welcoming during the intensely hot summers, though gloomy in winter. The presence of these houses on the Alentejo plain creates scenes of surprising beauty, heightened by the white of the lime, which underlines their almost abstract appearance.

The first significant constraint we faced was the triangular shape of the small plot itself, which, once the regulatory setbacks were applied, allowed almost no formal alternatives.

The design of the house would also confront a paradox: the most interesting panoramic views lie to the north, not to the south, where the windows ought to face in "search" of light.

To the south lies the street, with its movement and passers-by, whose gaze into the inner world of the house the owners wished to avoid.

These two aspects would ultimately become "key" themes of the project, and the solution would lie in introducing another paradigm of traditional architecture: the patio.

In plan, the volume is determined by the regulatory setbacks. In section, the maximum building height is reached on the rear elevation (2 storeys), while on the elevation facing the street the house has the lowest possible height (1 storey).

The result, for those walking along the street, is the image of a house in distorted perspective, as if in axonometric projection.

As a way of capturing light from the south, four patios are inserted into this long plane: the central patio, the living room patio, the guest bathroom patio and the children's bedroom patio. The windows, almost all located to the north, direct the views towards the beautiful landscape. The expression of the white solid and its abstract character was explored, with the patios resembling bluish excavations that delicately underline the expressiveness of the house.

In fact, this house is composed almost entirely from the Alentejo repertoire: white matter, light and shadow, thickness and mass, texture. Inside, the spaces follow one another between "allusions" to the traditional pitched-roof volume and variations in scale and depth that transform, in each room, the atmosphere of that intentionally sober inner world.

In the middle of the living room, the kitchen island takes on the ancestral role of the hearth as the central element of the home, around which everything happens.