The One Floor Contemporary Portuguese House In Melides

Now this is what I’m talking about! A beautifully simple home created for a couple, or single person I guess. Perfect in size and as well as location being situated in the open with panoramic views of the surroundings.

 Inhabiting this site means founding a place by means of a strong geometric imprint, achieved by two volumes overlapping in the shape of a cross. The aim of this dialectic strategy is not just to reduce the scale and presence of the construction, but also to split the programme into two areas, one more exuberant and exposed and the other more intimate and contained.

 If the light upper volume recalls the synthetic image of the modern house, with large glass areas open to the scenic countryside, the anchored lower volume, clad with sheets of earth-coloured concrete, pre-fabricated in situ, sit on the ground, giving support and stability to this contemporary Portuguese house.

 In terms of programmatic organisation, the suspended upper volume concentrates the main spaces, defining the minimum housing unit, while the lower volume acts as an expansion zone, hosting more intimate areas or service areas, allowing increased occupation. The kitchen, as the centre of the home, takes on paramount importance here, acting as the crossing-point for all movements: entering, going through the inside and moving out into the garden, with the long pergola providing shade and a water tank reflecting the pine trees, set under the house into the main bedroom.