House in Bela Vista

Ílhavo, Portugal

Photo © José Campos

Architects: RVDM Arquitectos

Year: 2013

The small width of the available land - less than 6 meters - and the wishes of the customer to arrange the ground floor only with technical spaces, demanded a typological response that organizes housing primarily in the upper two floors.

The house takes advantage of two fronts, east and west. On one side the sun, the other the magnificent views of the Ria de Aveiro. In the 1st floor the program is developed in a symmetrically from the central ladder.

The living room stretches from each sides of the house. Assuming its nuclear positioning, the room also expands up vertically, through a double height, which helps to organize the upper level and gives unity to common spaces.

In the upper floor two bedrooms with complementary areas, one for each quadrant, are connected by a bridge that overcomes the void.

The relation between volumes and spaces takes place both inside and outside, dismantling the apparent stability that the stereotypical shape of the house features. The main volume floats over the surrounding walls.