The House was constructed according on the research of the paradigms of the traditional architecture of the region. The implantation terrain of this house, located in the village of Possanco, sets the transition area between the new urban strip and the protected agriculture zone. An extensive northbound plain ends far away at the Arrabida mountain ridge. The house is a small vacation house that allows a casual and relaxed enjoyment of their weekend when escaping the urban everyday stress.

The Regional Roof

The idea comes from the so-called popular architecture, produced before the technological era. This is represented in small houses with sometimes asymmetric roofs, with one of the two garrets longer, almost disproportionate. These long roofs make the houses cosy during the extremely hot summers and yet sober in the winter. The presence of such houses on the Alentejo plains, allied to the whiteness of their lime painting bringing out an almost abstract figure. The relevant constraint is the triangular shape of the small lot which, when applying the legal distance measures, almost does not allow any formal alternatives. The most interesting views stand to the north and not south, where the windows should be placed in their quest for light. At south there is the street, traffic and passers-by whose look inside the house owners wanted to avoid. These two aspects ended up being the key-features of the project and the solution would end being the introduction of yet another paradigm in traditional architecture: the patio.

The White Volume

The volume is determined in blueprint by the regulated distances. In section, the maximum height permitted is reached by the back wall (2 floors) and the front wall, facing the street, stays with the minimum height possible (1 floor). To the passer-by, the result is a house of deformed perspective, in axonometric projection. In order to receive natural light to the south, there are introduced four patios in long plan: a central one, in the living-room, in the social toilets and near the children's room. Almost all facing north, the windows guide the views to the amazing landscape. The totality of the volume would be white, roofs included, where the patios resemble bluish excavations, enhancing delicately the strong character of the house. In the middle of the living-room, the kitchen-island takes on the ancient role of the fire as a centre-piece of the home, around which everything comes to place.