OURIQUE, PORTUGAL

Planning Application | Torre Vã  House

Portugal | 2023

BRIEF

Reconfiguration of a late 19th-century dilapidated single-storey terraced house near the historical village of Ourique in southern Portugal. 

The building sits within an old country estate, composed of a large manor house, currently being converted into a 5-star hotel, old farm buildings, and a colony of renovated old workers' houses. To better accommodate the family's needs, this project converts a 3-bedroom single-storey terraced house into a 5-bedroom one-and-a-half-storey building.

The existing interior spaces are of comfortable proportions but outdoor area is minimal, with boundaries at the front and rear of the house extending a mere 1.8m. Located in an area with relatively stringent planning guidelines and specific design requirements, the symbiosis between the modernised rear of the house and its more traditional front facade needed to be as complimentary as possible with the local typology. To augment the building size and configure a habitable loft space, we increased the height of the facades by 1.5m. 

Light and external space became the focus of this project. Inspired by a traditional Japanese indoor garden (Tsubo-Niwa), we sacrificed a portion of the allocated living room area and converted 4m2 of interior space into a small semi-internal courtyard. This new courtyard, juxtaposed to the existing house boundary, provides passive ventilation and harvests much-needed natural light. The adjacent volumes demarcating the courtyard are adjoined by the continuation of the roof parapet, which brings visual weight to the facade and counterbalances the large opening.

The result is a house of comfortable proportions and minimalist spaces of intertwining geometries, where family life can delightfully unfold. The stark simplicity of the rear external space and the calming influences of plants, concrete and small water features, promote a biophilic design that seeks to enhance the inhabitants' experience.

(Awaiting planning decision)

CONTEXT

IMAGES

DRAWINGS