House With Many Faces
House with Many Faces
Fala
DESIGN TEAM
Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, Lera Samovich, Ana Lima, Rute Peixoto, João Carlos Lopes
PHOTOGRAPHS
Matilde Viegas, Francisco Ascensão, Rory Gardiner, Giulietta Margot, Fala
CONTRACTOR
Civiflanco
DATES
2017-2022
YEAR
2022
LOCATION
Porto, Portugal
CATEGORY
Houses, Adaptive Reuse
An oversized house is barely a house. the very long narrow plot used to accommodate shabby offices and a spacious warehouse. a fearless client aimed at transforming this clutter into a home. a soon-to-be living room could easily have a dozen cars parked in there.
The structure of the existing building suggests two parts. a conventional front facing the street is an object on its own that has a dull facade, two levels and a disarray of rooms, while the back part is a vast space under a gable roof supported by heavy wooden beams.
The project is conceived as a series of cuts across the lengthy perimeter. five facets are reassessed and introduced to order the extensive space.
The two parts are now separated by an inner courtyard. The building in front takes in a series of small apartments, dividing the space with several slight gestures.
The warehouse simply turns into a massive living room that is then interrupted by one curved wall.
A proper kitchen and a monumental fireplace are the only hints of uncertain domesticity.
The five facets are addressed as a gang of elevations. each has a character of its own but they share apparent similarities.
A grid of black dots attempts to make sense of the concrete structures and defines the figure of the facades.
Reoccurring pairs of windows, yellow doors, green shutters and surfaces of glass brick correspond to intricate rooms, devise tense compositions and charismatic personas. the former warehouse is a house of many faces.
