Carlos Castanheira Architects

Expansion of Barrocas House

Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

EXPANSION OF BARROCAS HOUSE

Carlos Castanheira

CLIENT
Sociedade Agrícola Monte das Barrocas, Lda.

DESIGN TEAM 
Sara Pinto, Fernanda Sá

ENGINEERING
HDP- Construction and Engineering Projects, Lda

LEAD ARCHITECT
Carlos Castanheira 

PROJECT ARCHITECT
João Figueiredo

AREA
150 m²

YEAR
2017

LOCATION
Estremoz, Portugal

CATEGORY
Houses, House Interiors, Extension

One arrives along a straight line, in amongst holm cork trees that defy all rules of stability, extending their arms into impossible cantilevers.

Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

This is a monte alentejano * and buildings emerge from this hill. These are recent buildings, and all of them of them built by the owner. The main building is in timber. Of so-called standard construction, which finds it somewhat difficult in adapting to the topography.

Happy with the experience of living in a wooden house, the now larger family, intend to enlarge the main living room and add a bedroom, so as to create the necessary conditions to live here permanently. When one begins to alter what’s existing, little by little, it becomes evident that it is not enough to juxtapose or paste in new areas, new volumes.

Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

It is necessary re-organize and make corrections. It soon became clear that in order to be the respectful to the – well looked after by the owners - existing fabric, would oblige that the addition of new volumes to the existing would have to be in a way that would allow for the existing to speak, as with the construction, because the house would continue to be in use during the building period.

Far from me to imagine, that, I would one day have to adapt my own architectonic language to an existent construction, of which I am not particularly respectful, but owning to its simple existence and value, I treated as if it were a monument.

Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Construction drawings were studied, measurements were checked, a topographic survey of the surrounding area was undertaken. All with millimetric precision.

The Main bedroom, stands out by a neck from the other bedroom’s volume, as it extends off the existing corridor. It adapts its volume and roof to the levels of the existing.

Integrating, but creating its own personality and contemporaneity, whilst valuing the existing. It opens generously to the landscape, whilst creating privacy.

Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The main living room becomes an isolated covered veranda facing over the landscape towards the west. It opens the house to the landscape.

This new volume, with its cooper roof and two wooden troughs, creates a new image on arrival, forcing a recreation in the sequence of access, opening up the space, allowing in people and the horizon.

It imposes on the existing, showing volume, space and materiality. It is juxtaposed, carefully, but it turns out to be dominant or dominator of the whole.

Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

It rises up absorbing the covered space for parking. It sets-out and bestows hierarchy to access whilst hiding technical areas. The - almost Iush – vegetation is mixed and almost mystic.

The almost excessive horizontality of the holm-oaks, contrasts with other more vertical, imported species, which are common in these eclectic gardens. As it always has been.

Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG


Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Expansion of Barrocas House
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG


Expansion of Barrocas House
Project
Expansion of Barrocas House
Project


Expansion of Barrocas House
Plan
Expansion of Barrocas House
Existent plan
Expansion of Barrocas House
Proposal plan


Carlos Castanheira Architects
T +351 223 704910 M +351 917 890709
Carlos Castanheira Architects
R. do Conselheiro Veloso da Cruz 61, 4400-094 Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal