Hillcrowd

A corner plot on the main avenue of Vila Nova de Gaia, on a tight site with its surroundings built up entirely to seven and eight storeys. An avenue with a history, heavy with cars, people and the metro, and with a perpendicular side street that calls for a shift in scale.

The brief left little room: the requirements were set from the outset and the noise from the avenue had to be dealt with. The question was not how to make a disruptive building among so many others — it was what colour palette to set and what relationship to establish with what was already there.

The avenue was conceived from the start with covered arcades. We liked the idea and ended up carrying it around the whole building, widening the pavement at the cost of some buildable area. It is a deliberate trade: less private area, more public space.

The structural grid, exacting out of necessity, set the terms of the design. The elevations and the massing come out of a play of lines whose density opens up and closes in turn. The ground floor is retail, the upper floors are housing, and the roof terrace looks out over the city.

Geologically it was a demanding project: three basement levels to handle vehicle movement and at least one parking space per unit. The unit layouts, open-plan between kitchen and living room, were designed for young people and young couples.