The white-painted spaces are dressed in a combination of contrasting dark wood and white marble. The client requested a simple and cozy but «unfamiliar» form for the single-storey house. Photography is by Paulo Goulart. Windows on the sides of the splayed blocks bring in light from the south, while floor-to-ceiling glazing wraps around the rear of the building. Sloping roofs rise to meet the flat L-shaped plane that stretches across the living room and master bedroom, providing a non-standard gabled profile. «The building took this form as a result of rethinking the traditional Azorian house, known for its gable roofs,» said studio architect Rodrigo Sequeira Dias Filipe. The architects responded by adding cutaways in the facade, portioning up the volume into chunks that house a second bedroom, a kitchen-diner, a car-port and a utility room. «The volume naturally settles over the smooth terrain, respecting the existing topography in order to gain views of the sunset and the vegetation with the least impact on the surroundings.»
High-level lighting accentuates the gabled roof structure inside the house. A slim wooden sun deck follows the outline of the room and is shaded under the overhang of the roof. Project credits:
Architects: M-Arquitectos – Monteiro, Resendes Sousa Arquitectos
Partners: Fernando Monteiro, Marco Resendes, Miguel Sousa
Architect in charge: Fernando Monteiro
Collaborators: Marco Resendes, Miguel Sousa, Diana Policarpo, Pedro Furtado, Maria Melo Bento
Stability and infrastructure/Engineers: José Brum, Ricardo Pacheco
Construction: Multipacto
Site plan – click for larger imageFloor plan – click for larger imageSection one – click for larger imageSection two – click for larger imageSection three – click for larger imageSection four – click for larger imageSection five – click for larger image Related story: Taíde House was built over the granite walls of a family’s original residence
The utility rooms of the irregularly shaped Casa Rosto do Cão were arranged across the road-facing side of the property, while living and sleeping areas have been positioned so that they look out onto open farmland at the rear.
