Brunhais House

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

BRUNHAIS HOUSE

Rui Vieira Oliveira

LOCATION
Brunhais, Portugal

CATEGORY
Houses

AREA
500 m²

YEAR
2016

MANUFACTURERS
Saint-Gobain, Weber, Sanitana

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Brunhais is a small village surrounded by mountains and a huge blue sky in the north of Portugal.

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Immersed in a paradoxically rocky and verdant landscape, this house is part of a set of three projects belonging to three brothers.

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The program was elementary, the project should host a couple and support the activity of the family´s company.

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The slightly uneven terrain allowed the overlapping of two volumes.

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

These two volumes materialize the surroundings and marks these two different functions.

The white one for living and the gray one volume made of natural stone, a kind of laboratory.

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The entrance is made through the void left by the upward movement of one of the sculpted planes.

This sculpted U-shaped volume allowed us to separate the private and social areas and create the traditional courtyard open to the sky and facing the sunset in the long summer nights.

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Once used for agricultural activities this patio would now have a playful function.

When we perceive the final result we got the perception of having carved a piece of white stone that contrasts in a huge blue sky.

We wanted to create movement, dynamics. Imagine a rock that glides on another, this movement would create new spaces.

Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG


Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Brunhais House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG


Brunhais House
East elevation
Brunhais House
West elevation
Brunhais House
North elevation
Brunhais House
South elevation


Brunhais House
Basement floor plan
Brunhais House
Ground floor plan
Brunhais House
Roof plan

Brunhais House
Section H/1