Arx ​​portugal Arquitectos, Lda.

House on the Sand

House on the Sand 

ARX Portugal Arquitectos

House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Nuno Mateus

AREA
1200 M²

YEAR
2023

LOCATION
Guincho, Cascais, Portugal

CATEGORY
Houses

House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Text description provided by architect.

The house is defined as a material and tectonic volume, with a faceted and articulated geometry, strongly attached to the terrain.

Despite being halfway up the slope, it is set in a hillside situation, enjoying a relative sensation and visual dominance over the landscape.

Conceptually, it evokes the tutelary presence of the defensive buildings that dot this area of the coast, forts, bastions and watchtowers, which dot the wider territory in which this house is inserted and which in some way respond to a close vigil relationship between the land and the sea. These constructions often precede later, more extensive urban settlements.

House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Reflecting the characteristics of their specific territories, the forms of these defensive structures are varied, from square plans to star configurations, oscillating between more idealized plans or adapted or hybrid designs.

In all cases, they are structures that implement a morphological strategy of dissimulation or fusion in the landscape.

It is in this context of physical and conceptual framing that the house adopts a polyfaceted star morphology, with a predominantly opaque expression, despite its generous recessed spans.

House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The volume is thus built in exposed concrete, with green pigment incorporation.

Like an artifact that belongs to or is born from the earth. In symbiosis and not in opposition as is more common in residential constructions. Your physical perception on the ground will therefore be one of full integration.

The roof is landscaped and completes this idea of belonging, in addition to literally generating a new territory for the use of the landscape beyond the land-space itself, which it defines and provides.

Ideally, with new digital tools, i.e. google earth and other aerial vision devices, it won’t be easy to find.

House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Given the demanding weather conditions in this area of Guincho, the volume of the house is excavated inside, defining two large courtyards in the heart of the house.

This option intends to capture for its epicenter an important fragment of natural space, around which life articulates and unfolds, but already in a condition protected from the harsh northwest winds and serenely open to the south.

The rocky outcrops are naturally integrated and the vegetation is extracted from the native flora as if in plant continuity with the terrain.

House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Its contour walls are fully glazed, to provide this coexistence with nature, and the floors and interior walls facing the patios are in exposed wood, giving a fuller expression to this context.


House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
House on the Sand
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG


House on the Sand
Location
House on the Sand
Site Plan
House on the Sand
Planta baixa


House on the Sand
Section
House on the Sand
Section

Arx ​​portugal Arquitectos, Lda.
T +351 213 918110 F +351 213 918119
Arx ​​portugal Arquitectos, Lda.
Largo Santos 4 1, 1200-848 Lisboa, Portugal