Location Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal
Year of project completion 2023
Total built area 211m²
Construction company Alfredo Pacheco Dâmaso, Unipessoal Lda
Engineering Eng.Ricardo Côrte-Real Pacheco, Eng. Renato Leça
Client Private
The architectural body seeks to adjust to the natural topography of the land, which has a regular slope over the main street, to the north. There is a marked difference in level between the main street and the back of the site, to the south, reminiscent of what would have been the topography of other times. Given the discrepancy in the ground level between the storage area and the land, the opportunity was taken to develop a partially buried floor that embraces the land. The volume was shaped based on the uneven terrain, but also according to the imposition of the existing subdivision, whose built areas and gross construction area had already been previously outlined.
The spatial distribution of the programme is therefore divided between the basement floor, the ground floor and the first floor. Its implementation is based on a flat rectangular base, with its main façade indented, to the detriment of the current subdivision permit. The indentation of the façade causes the emergence of an outdoor area – the entrance to the house. This same area provides a parking space for one vehicle. The ground floor, at the level of the main street, includes the social areas, such as the living room, open-plan dining room and kitchen, and guest bathroom. In the middle, we have the staircase as a vertical access.
The first floor houses two bedrooms, to the south, equipped with a supporting bathroom, and a master bedroom – consisting of a walk-in-wardrobe and ensuite bathroom – to the north.
Finally, the basement floor houses a bathroom, a bedroom and a living room that open onto the garden and that can serve as an office or leisure space, according to the client’s wishes. The garden had a landscaped design in order to enhance the small, but cosy, outdoor space. A reflecting pool of water, flanked by two travertine stone benches, creates an area of peace and tranquillity.
An attempt was made to combine the stripped reinforced concrete, according to the defined stereotomy in dry wooden boards, with shutters made of cumaru wood slats. Concrete, understood as a plastic element, rich in its malleability, as well as wood, seen as a natural element of great nobility, create a symbiosis in the architectural work.
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