Vila Nova de Famalicão | Casa em Lousado | Correia Ragazzi

[Márcio Ferreira]

Casa em Lousado / Correia Ragazzi


20
Nov 2008

By Nico Saieh — Filed under: Houses , Selected , Concrete, Portugal, Stone, Wood

Architects: Graça Correia e Roberto Ragazzi
Location: Lousado, Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal
Site Area: 3,013 sqm
Constructed Area: 355 sqm
Promotor: Joaquim Agostinho Carneiro da Costa e Sá
Collaborators: Ana Neto Vieira, Susana Silva, Telmo Gomes, Katharina Wiederman, Pedro Gama
Structure and foundation engineering: GOP
Hydraulic Services: GOP
Technical Facilities Engineering: GET
Coordination and supervision: Graça Correia
Contractor: Emplame
Project year: 2004
End of construction: 2008
Photographs: Alberto Placido, Luis Ferreira Alves


Our architecture is grounded on the conviction that the identity of a work is determined by the way in which the conception process embodies the specificities of its origin.
Ignoring the possibility of a process resulting on a work’s appearance, this conviction allows, within each program particularity, the investment on the same themes without compromising each one’s quality. On the contrary, through incorporation one defines its singularity and so, the features of the surroundings turn out to be fundamental.

The backdrop of this plot is rather rural and even playful in its relation with the river.
The house is situated on a 3000m2 family farm where everyone relates but requests privacy. The farm features long platforms towards the river with rich walls in texture that create different areas with fruit trees. At the upper level one founds the access to the farm and most of the proximity relations with the existent construction on the north surroundings, extremely uncharacterized. For this reason, the house faces south and the river, the less built areas with the most trees.

The maintenance of most of all beautiful and locally traditional walls was very important, in such a way that these participate on the spatial organization of the house, establishing a particular connection with both the glass panels and the painted concrete. Hence the house sits on one of the walls that separate two platforms resulting on a two storey house, each with a direct relation with the outside and where the wall bursts through the windows contributing to an interesting inside spatial definition given its particular texture, now on the living area and kitchen, situated on the ground floor.


As the south view seen from the upper level is not that interesting given its industrial character, one chose to place the bedrooms on this level framed by patios that function as their extension to the outside. This solution allows an increase of outside area for diverse uses of leisure as also provides great privacy.
It’s clear the harmonious relation between the volume and the surroundings at the lower level with large windows framing the better view to south, containing the north view behind the volume that correspond to the bedroom patios on the upper floor. These patios guarantee the autonomy desired between the house and the platform where it “lays” assuring excellent leisure areas to south, east and west.


At the upper level one finds the entrance where the relation with the south landscape is immediate and with the lower platform through the distribution hall with two storeys. The elevation at the main entrance is drawn by a white volume with small pieces of coloured glass and on the inside a big wardrobe on the bedroom hall. On this floor is clear the separation between the family area of three bedrooms, wardrobes and bathrooms, with the less private area of an office and guest suit. Exactly on this side one finds the lobby and stairs connecting to the lower floor where again the different areas are clearly distinguished, the most public area with living and eating area, then the kitchen, laundry, pantry and service bathroom for the floor and the garage. The entrances for the less noble areas are dissimulated by wood panels.

The weightless of the volume is defined by the fragmentation and the decision to separate horizontally both levels as well as due to the hanging of the projection of the patios over the inferior level and platform, which helps accentuate the transparency of the lower level.
The plastic possibilities of the materials chosen are determinant and were consciously introduced as aesthetic means without questioning the programmatic issues of the constructive logic. The distinctive shape of this house is no answer to constructive questions but also to aesthetic considerations associated to them. We believe that appearance and vision are determinant for the outcome silhouette.

Retirado de http://www.archdaily.com/9116/casa-em-lousado-correia-ragazzi/

[JVS]

Casa em Lousado, Porto

Architecture

Claudia Saraiva Casa em Lousado, the second house by the Italian-Portuguese atelier Correia/Ragazzi,draws attention with its shape but charms with its details. The clients' brief was clear: utter privacy from the neighbors to the north, total openness to south. The site, on a riverbank, was divided into two levels by an old stone wall, a traditional feature of the landscape in the rural outskirts of Porto, northern Portugal.

Take a deeper look at the Casa em Lousado

Correia/Ragazzi's solution is something of an upside-down bunker sitting atop these two steps - with one floor located on each. The top floor, placed on the north step, is guarded and private. The one below, overlooking the south, is seemingly open. The stone wall was kept, spearing the floorplan and becoming a central feature of the living-room and kitchen on the lower floor.

With the side facades kept blank, Casa em Lousado's top floor has three openings to the north: a concealed front door, a micro-window, and, amusingly, a floor-to-ceiling window of the bathroom in the main suite. Inside, the suite, bedrooms and office all open southwards to protected roof terraces, surrounded by walls that are level with the roof and angle outwards to the south for comfort.

Facing the entrance hall and the stairway are two south-facing wall-to-wall windows, each a storey high and vertically aligned. The upper one, with a restrained view, is the reason for the break in the 'beak' of the south facade - a result of the angled walls of the terraces. The ground floor window is met, on either side, by the windows of the living-room and kitchen - which take up the remaining visible lower story, have glazed walls on two sides, and open up to a generous south-facing deck that runs the length of the house. The openness of the ground floor is shielded from prying eyes by the stone wall and the angled terraces.

The living-room is the most flamboyant room, with windows that can be opened up almost entirely to the garden - including a corner that parts. The one visible pillar half-hidden in the lateral windows is a reminder that the floor above isn't exactly floating on air. While Casa em Lousado isn't quite as audacious as the firm's earlier Casa do Geres, it's nonetheless a welcome - if quirky - addition to Portugal's stock of contemporary houses.

in http://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/interactive-floorplan-casa-em-lousado-porto/3290

[Alphaone]

Pelo que percebi, os quartos só têm vista para terraços. É a segunda casa que vejo nos últimos anos com este tipo de solução, em Portugal. É claro que os arquitectos têm toda a legitimidade para escolher esta solução se o cliente se sente à vontade. Acredito que é uma excelente solução para situações em contexto mais urbano. As pequenas casas das estreitas ruas de subúrbios japoneses é disso exemplo perfeito. No caso desta habitação, se a área social está toda aberta para o exterior, pode-se imaginar que a paisagem deve ter interesse. Assim, questiona-se se não ficará resumido à procura da forma pela forma (ainda legítimo, mas menos interessante). Admite-se que desenhar vãos é muitas vezes complicado. Acho interessante a forma da chaminé do recuperador de calor que surge como um apontamento de geometrias mais complexas (embora ainda, simples) no contexto de uma habitação absolutamente modernista o que em Portugal quer dizer (ainda) vaguardista.

[Argos]

Concordo com o Aplhaone, esses quartos parecem-me um sufoco, ao menos se os pátios fossem ajardinados, de outra forma parece-me um convite ao grafitti (falo por mim proprio porque nunca os fiz mas se o meu pai me mete-se num quarto assim, nunca se sabe....). Mas no fim não há dois clientes iguais.

[-Q-]

muito bonito, mas será que n é muito estúpido!? quartos com vista para um plano inclinado! espero mesmo que tenha sido idiossincrasia do cliente (duvido muito) pelo menos uma escada na rampa para espreitar a vista =D. Como objecto está muito bem conseguido