Broken Rock House
BROKEN ROCK HOUSE
SO Arquitetura & Design
ARCHITECTS
SO Arquitetura & Design
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
So Arquitetura & Design
ACOUSTICS
Roberto Aguiar
THERMAL CONSULTING
Roberto Aguiar
HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING
Roberto Aguiar
ENGINEERING
Teorema Contínuo - Unipessoal Lda
MANUFACTURERS
Technal, Bosch, Carlos Pinheiro Sistemas
SUPERVISION
So Arquitetura & Design
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Tecnicouto
LIGHTING DESIGN
Tecniq
PHOTOGRAPHS
Ivo Tavares Studio
AREA
315 m²
YEAR
2024
LOCATION
Lagoa, Portugal
CATEGORY
Houses
English description provided by the architects.
Casa da Rocha Quebrada. An essential house. That is how we like to describe it. It is neither minimalist nor brutalist. It is simply what it needs to be.
The project emerged in a unique context: a home designed for the parents of one of the studio's founders.
This brought freedom, but also responsibility. It was an opportunity to design without noise or concessions, almost like starting from a blank slate.
The plot, the last vacant lot on a stretch of the southern coast of São Miguel, demanded a solid volume.
Set between old buildings and a harsh Atlantic landscape, the house stands as the closure of a block while simultaneously acting as a natural extension of the rock.
The choice of reinforced concrete was obvious—a material proof against time and sea salt. Raw, yet honest. The building presents itself to the street as a mineral mass composed of solids and voids.
The recessed and protected openings reveal little of the interior. From the outside, the house seems almost uninhabitable, a new ruin, a series of caves in Rocha Quebrada.
Yet these caves are meant for living. Inside, wood warms the space, contrasting with the coldness of the concrete.
The program is simple: three bedrooms and an open, fluid social area that is naturally ventilated and illuminated by a central courtyard cutting through the volume. Anything that is not essential does not exist.
On the south side, the house opens to the sea, but without showing off. The views are always present, discreetly filtered by the structure. From the natural pools in front, the volume appears deaf and silent—nothing but stone, light, and shadow.
Material, proportion, and function; the rest follows naturally.
