This project in Gondomar, Portugal consists of the remodelling of an old farmhouse located in a very rural city. By disassembling the dated materials of the old facade, Paulo Merlini Architects discovered that the house was actually made up of three small houses built according to the needs of the former owner.
This was the key premise for the design of the new project: maintaining the structure of the original volumes and assuming their original shape uncovered; unifying them through a slab perforated by a central patio that fills with light the entire social area located on the ground floor. A garden roof finish on this central slab offers a new intimate garden to all rooms and private areas of the house.
In terms of materiality, the archtects’ intention was to create a strong contrast between the two floors. On the ground floor, a rougher materiality, denouncing the tectonic of the construction, transmitting the sensation of living inside a granite excavated mass, with a very strong relation to the exterior space. On the upper floor, the geometry of the three original houses is denounced through their materialisation as pure white volumes flooded with light. On this floor, the high right feet, the wooden shutters, the white and the wooden floors recreate the feeling of a typical Portuguese country house.
Design and info © Paulo Merlini Architects
Images © Ivo Tavares Studio
