PROMONTORIO + João Cravo - Casa da Volta, a house in the Grandola hills, echoing the tradition of the Portuguese alcáçova
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Casa da Volta, a house in the Grandola hills, echoing the tradition of the Portuguese alcáçova

PROMONTORIO + João Cravo

Villa  /  Completed
PROMONTORIO + João Cravo

The house is located in the Southwest of Alentejo, deep in the Grandola hills. The gently undulating topography contrasts with the harsh dryness of the landscape and its bare vegetation of cork and holm oaks with sparse bushes creeping from the calcareous soil. Given its remoteness and isolation, the house echoes the tradition of the Portuguese alcáçova, —or qasbah, following its Arab etymology—, which functioned as a defensive citadel, or compound, with its constructions built within and protected by a high-walled perimeter. Poetically, it summons the Heideggerian notion of “bounded space”, of the human need to define a place of dwelling amidst the endlessness of the landscape. In fact, this typology of a fortified farm is the dominant form of occupation across the Maghreb and the Mediterranean, from Roman antiquity and Arab settlements, to Fernand Pouillon’s and Le Corbusier’s excursus in Argel. The house is devised as a walled court, onto which a series of inner volumes are set against. The positioning of this court in the landscape was actually constrained by a regulatory distancing from the property limits. Sited on a valley line, it appears half sunk from the Southwest corner, progressively revealing itself towards Northeast. Other than a corner gateway and the small entrance door, the exterior walls barely have openings. An exception is made to the East elevation, as it opens up to a large terrace overlooking the vastness of the landscape and a small creek below. Inside the courtyard, three rectangular volumes occupy the North, the East and the West corners, comprising respectively the bedroom suites, the living room and kitchen and the garage-cum-staff bedroom, while the void southwards is formally occupied by an orchard. The common areas function in a classical sequence of unfolding rooms, from the kitchen to the living room and to the library, all of which are separated by symmetrical pocket doors. The dining area is divided from the living room by a large fireplace with a hanging metal chimney. The ceiling is made of structural whitewashed wood beams and boarding with white stuccoed walls and cement floors. Clad from the outside in a whitewashed stone masonry, the thick walls are capped by an elusive pan tile, suggestive of a pitched roof that in fact does not exist, and an equally calk painted concrete lintel. The roughness of these burnt lime surfaces summons a vernacular and quasi-archaic condition which is nonetheless dismissed by its sheer scale and abstraction.

Credits

 Grândola region
 Portugal
 Pedro do Carmo Costa
 09/2021
 500 mq
 PROMONTORIO + João Cravo
 Paulo Martins-Barata e João Cravo
 Fernando Pedreiro, Lda.
 Structures; Duarte Silveira/ Strong Motion; HVAC/ Thermal: Bruno Henriques; Electricals/ Security/ Communications: Luis Oliveira/ CPX; Water & Plumbing: Selina Cabete/ CPX; Acoustics: Joana Leitão; Cabinetry Design: José Luís Barbosa.
 Schist, Masonry, Wood: Local manufacturer - Façades; Plasterboards: Knauf Portugal - Interior wall and ceilings; Sanitary Ware: GSI Cerâmica - Bathrooms; Taps: Ofa - Bathrooms and kitchen; Window frames: Anicolor Sistemas de Alumínio - Façades; Ceramic tiles: CS Coelho da Silva - Roof; Hardware: Häfele - Doors; Hardware: JNF - Doors; Hardware: Batista Gomes - Doors; Marine plywood: Multiplacas - Ceilings; Stops: Athmer oHG - Doors; Skylights: Luzacril - Roof; Sockets and switches: Efapel - Walls; kitchen bench: Silestone Cosentino - Kitchen; Stroked screed: Fernando Pedreiro, Lda - Pavement;; Black painted refractory brick: Fernando Pedreiro, Lda - Fireplace floor; Matt black painted steel: Fernando Pedreiro, Lda - Fireplace chimney.
 Alexandre Ramos and Luís Viegas

Curriculum

A five-partner firm lead by Paulo Martins Barata, João Luís Ferreira, Paulo Perloiro, Pedro Appleton and João Perloiro, PROMONTORIO is a full-service architecture, planning, landscaping, interior design and graphics team that began in Lisbon in 1990 as an experimental studio and consistently grew into a practice of 60 architects, planners, landscape architects, interior designers and graphic designers. Underlying its approach to the urban form, the work of PROMONTORIO has often been identified with the pursuit of a 'system of robustness' (solidity, stability and durability) both in terms of representational meaning and technical research. This in turn has been implemented and tested in vast construction sites and under challenging time and budget constraints. Our process springs from a dynamic and focused design culture that fosters collaboration above all. This cohesive and interactive structure enables us to deal with large and complex projects both in terms of design and programme.

https://www.promontorio.net

Tag

#Finalist #Portugal  #Concrete  #Stone  #Residence  #Concrete roofing  #Stucco  #Cement  #PROMONTORIO + João Cravo  #Grândola region 

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