Casas Da Baixa
Casas da Baixa
PF architecture studio
LOCATION
Porto, Portugal
TYPE
Residential>multi unit housing
located in Rua de D. João IV, Porto (street), Porto, the Casas da Baixa (houses) project, had the objective of refurbishing a small, 19th century block.
The set is understood by its formal qualities as having a role in the absolute singularity of city's urban context, since it announces a completely different image from the other blocks of the downtown area, coming close to the rural centers, peripheral to the city, in the concepts in which scale and form are concerned.
Since its construction, the block has had a multifamily housing usage, revealing in its typologies – former to the intervention – successive appropriations, extensions, and subdivisions.
The intervention intends to hierarchize and reorganize the existing typologies, reformulating the whole and designing a total of 11 independent housing units which in turn vary from studio, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom typologies, maintaining the constructive principles of the preexistence
In spite of its advanced state of degradation, the organic and vernacular layout of the whole was so evident that it became the starting point for the conceptual definition of the design.
The original construction system, consisting of sturdy walls in granite, and floors, roofing, and structures in wood, was mostly respected, having only been subject to few replacements and corrections.
The result is 11 interdependent apartments that can either have individual or shared access, where the white of the walls and ceilings contrasts with the warmth of thef pinewood floors, creating a consistent dialogue between the preexistence and the intervention.
The typologies are marked by the variation of finished floor levels and use of the attic area, resulting in free-floor plan apartments in which the mezzanines play a remarkable role in the interpretation and living of the interior space.
