Casa em U

A settled plot, rectangular and well oriented, and a client with requirements an ordinary house does not allow for: privacy above all, and a set of uses — gym, pool, generous outdoor spaces, a space for the animals as well — that rarely sit together in a single domestic brief.

The house runs over three floors: basement, ground floor and set-back top floor. The brief is complex and the uses distinct, so the flow between them had to be resolved from the first sketch.

The concept is simple to state: close to the street and open to the inside of the plot itself. The U-shape embraces the outdoor space and turns in on itself. The privacy the client wanted is not achieved by adding walls, but by the geometry of the house.

Solar orientation was the starting premise. The openings are large and allow the barrier between inside and outside to be set up or removed as the moment requires. The materials were chosen for the way they return light, with a good-quality stone cladding.

It is a restrained, functional project, for a young couple starting a family. The colour choices and the sense of space that runs through the interior can be read in the façades too.