House in Fontainhas / Fala

House in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Stairs, HandrailHouse in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, WindowsHouse in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Stairs, Windows, DoorHouse in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Stairs, HandrailHouse in Fontainhas / Fala - More Images+ 4

Porto, Portugal
  • Architects: Fala
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  255
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Ricardo Loureiro
  • Design Team: filipe magalhães ana luisa soares ahmed belkhodja peixoto rude lera samovich elisa sassi paulo sousa
  • Landscape Architect: Pomo
  • Contractor: civiflanco lda
  • City: Porto
  • Country: Portugal
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House in Fontainhas / Fala - Exterior Photography, Garden
© Ricardo Loureiro

Text description provided by the architects. The project is structured within overlapping antagonistic spatial structures. The ground floor is conceived as one uninterrupted space defined by a free curved wall. It is a volatile room with only one corner and two continuous white surfaces opening up to the vivid garden. Its inner elevations are carefully calculated.

House in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Stairs, Handrail
© Ricardo Loureiro
House in Fontainhas / Fala - Image 9 of 9
Diagrama
House in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Stairs, Windows, Door
© Ricardo Loureiro

Conversely, the first floor is a composition of intricate rooms and rhythmic collisions of different geometries, a sequence of irregular spaces. The complexity is introduced to accommodate all the necessary programs, adapting to the narrow perimeter of the site. A set of equally distanced wooden beams supporting the roof causes inconvenient intersections. 

House in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Windows
© Ricardo Loureiro

In contrast with the opposing spatial orders, materiality holds the house together. Fluent white walls are stuck between striped wooden floors and light blue ceilings, disturbed once in a while by flat blue doors, touches of marble or a pink kitchen.

House in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Stairs, Handrail
© Ricardo Loureiro

The back façade didactically reflects the three orders. The ground floor is completely open to the garden while on the first floor a single window frames a certain perspective of the dense context. The striped concrete cornice is introduced on both elevations and a blue circle, aligned with an unnecessary pink column, ends the peculiar composition. A ground floor dissolving into the garden, a precisely divided piano nobile, a headstrong roof.

House in Fontainhas / Fala - Interior Photography, Bathroom, Sink
© Ricardo Loureiro

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About this office
Cite: "House in Fontainhas / Fala" [Casa em Fontainhas / fala] 17 Jul 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/943698/house-in-fontainhas-fala> ISSN 0719-8884

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