Casa 29

A corner plot between Rua 29 and Rua 16, in Espinho. A house in ruins that did not take up the whole site, its main façade facing east and, in front of it, the garden that precedes the Igreja Matriz, the parish church. To the north, what was then the fire station.

What was most interesting there were the façades: a singular design, exacting, classical. Restoring them in full was the premise we would not give up — it would have been a crime to touch the openings, the windows or the azulejo tiling, which we restored.

The problem was on the other side. The owner wanted a house with more than twice the existing area, with large rooms for the family, a multi-purpose hall and a roof terrace. There was also the blind gable to the north to close, and the relationship with two street frontages of distinct character to keep.

The decision was not to imitate. Everything we added is radically different from what was there: a deliberate cut, in copper, that works as a frame embracing the two old façades. The door is almost impossible to pick out and the new volume reads as closed, giving nothing away about the openings. At the top, a roof terrace with lighting and a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view, connected directly to an office and living space.

The interior went the opposite way from the exterior: simplicity in colours and materials, and the classical vocabulary of the Portuguese house — floorboards, ceilings, joinery, stone and timber.

More than a decade on, the house has had different generations living in it.