Exterior Spaces in Guimaraes / Pitagoras Arquitectos

Architects: Pitagoras Arquitectos
Location: Guimaraes, Portugal
Project year: 2008 – 2009
Photographs: Luis Ferreira

The project came about from the need to add 12,000 m2 of land composed of a wood of oak trees in a reasonable state, to existing housing in a 4,000 m2 plot, separated until now by a public staircase 4 m wide.

It creates a new low-rise access from the road, which would become the main house entrance, eliminating the existing access made on the high land, 24 m up.

It is important to treat it as a course of recreational character which crosses a large part of the land, interlinked with pedestrian paths and benefiting from the existing spring, turning water into one of the structural elements of the garden.

The project results from a functional and structural motivation. The concepts defining it are – idea, structure and form. The landscape and architecture are thought of as the same.

Walls, slopes, ramps are planned; pathways are placed in hierarchical order; waters are directed to the new lake. The regeneration of the landscape is proposed through the constitution of an integrated system of plant beds fitting with the landscape.

Material, species, textures and remarkable colours motivated by some abstract inspiration are combined, in an area where the relationships between the natural and artificial are explored. To finish, we hope for a place which establishes empathy of communication with the senses.