Project: House in Preguicosas
Architects: Branco-DelRio Arquitectos
Location: Coimbra, Portugal
Photographs by: do mal o menos
House in Preguicosas by Branco-DelRio Arquitectos
Located on the outskirts of Coimbra, an area of single family homes, the House in Preguicosas offers a pleasant, yet isolated view – features which won’t last long since there are lots of other homes that are yet to be built around it. To maintain its open views, the house is elevated and enclosed, seeking a single opening with a porch to the south garden.
From the architects: “The house makes up for its small size by connecting spaces. It seizes the exterior of both the garden and patio, incorporating them through the continuity of the elements. The interiors follow one another, link and relate visually. Always offering distant perspectives and specific visual relations with the outside.
The organisation on three floors responds to the classical system of services – social areas – bedrooms, characterized by differences in light and materiality: from the cavernous basement to the overhead light that bathes the stairs and the work area adjacent to it at the top floor. The social floor is organised around the kitchen which the owners, a couple with young children, considered the center of their activity and their house habits.
The two larger divisions occupy opposite ends: the south living room appropriates the garden and the studio to north closes to the street. Both connect through the courtyard, which belongs to them equally. All plans that connect these spaces are continuous and fluid, and hidden door and window frames fade limits.
The construction of this house was made with a strict economic control and quality, aiming at the correct execution of the details thus allowing, with a very limited budget, surprising results.”
