Uneven house | fala

Save
Uneven house | fala

Information

  • Project Name: Uneven house
  • Practice: fala
  • Completion year: 2019
  • Gross Built up Area: 180 sqm
  • Project Location: Porto
  • Country: Portugal
  • Design Team: filipe magalhães, ana luisa soares, ahmed belkhodja, costanza favero, lera samovich, paulo sousa
  • Landscape Consultants: pomo
  • Contractors: civiflanco lda
  • Photo Credits: Ricardo loureiro
More Info Less Info

Excerpt: Uneven house, designed by fala, is a transformation of a ground-floor shop and its basement into an apartment. The longitudinal spaces are defined by a straight white wall on one side, and a composite wall on the opposite (comprising three massive plywood doors to the secondary programs). While the walls play their own formal game, the position of the doors and the finishes remain the same on both levels.

Project Description

[Text as submitted by architect] A ground floor shop and its basement were to be converted into an apartment. An extension in the back was demolished to provide a garden, from which the new house would become the plinth to a cheerless 1960’s housing block. Both levels are conceived as a main room spanning between the two façades.

Uneven house | fala
© fala
Uneven house | fala
© Ricardo loureiro

The longitudinal spaces are defined by a straight white wall on one side, and a composite wall on the opposite (comprising three massive plywood doors to the secondary programs). While the walls play their own formal game, the position of the doors and the finishes remain the same on both levels.

Uneven house | fala
© Ricardo loureiro
Uneven house | fala
© Ricardo loureiro
Uneven house | fala
© Ricardo loureiro

The inner logic also dictates the façade on the garden side, which acts as if the house was only one very tall level. In fact, both levels have floor to ceiling glass openings towards the outside, thanks to a new staircase dug in front of the garden. As the load-bearing structure of the building goes through the project, its visual presence is challenged by claddings of marble and mirrors. The glorious stone pattern extends outside as a black and white striped frieze marking the perimeter of the garden, a grand horizontal window framing the context.

Uneven house | fala
© Ricardo loureiro
Uneven house | fala
© Ricardo loureiro
Uneven house | fala
© Ricardo loureiro

Leave a Reply