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Mortuary house in Vila Caiz

Raul Sousa Cardoso & Graca Vaz designed in Amarante, near Oporto, a mortuary house that emerges as a filter between the residential context and the universe of contemplation of the distant mountains.

Bounded by a municipal road, a farmland and the Church of Vila Caiz, the constructed volume results from the confluence between the axes of delimiters ground, framing the landscape and solar orientation.

The materiality of the building integrates and filters the context in which it operates through grilles cover crops in concrete (filter of light and views) granite floors, walls and paneling in conjunction with the whiteness of the walls.

The interior space results mainly from three major interconnection between spaces defined by an atrium and two rooms that can be joined or fragmented depending on the circumstances. The view of the distant mountains combined with the water from a tank that strategically reflects in the slope of the roof and walls of the mortuary are factors that catalyze an environment of neutrality, silence and introspection.