House in Avanca

The site where the house is located has a non-regular shape. It is perpendicular to the street Dr. Egas Moniz, in Avanca, Portugal. The solar orientation (from the street to the interior) is North – South. Concerning the topography, the lot has a slope of 85 cm, from the entrance. Inserted in a consolidated urban area, ensuring privacy, the program of the house was turned exclusively to the interior of the lot.

  The building followed planning rules and restriction, so the main volume should have been 9x9 m large and with two floors. On the main volume lies another one, with 6 m length and only one floor. Nu.ma first designed a platform that merges with the ground, where the house is inserted. To avoid the massive effect of the building on the elevations, Portuguese architects designed a set of lines, merging the floors and establishing some rules on the windows and facade finishes. The result was the division of the elevations in three equal parts (2.1+2.1+2.1 m). This rule allowed to create a recess, trough the rotation of the section S0, to emphasize the house entrance.

Concerning the program of the house, the interior distribution is separated by function and by floors. The social/service area, at the ground-floor, is composed by the entrance hall, the toilet, office/library, kitchen, dining/living room, garage and laundry. On the first floor, the private area is composed by the rooms, a toilet and a master suite. The master suite has a direct access to the exterior terrace at south, with an exterior connection to the exterior swimming pool on the ground floor.

House em Avanca, Avanca, Portugal
Program: single family house
Architecture: nu.ma – Nuno Silva
Civil engineer: Nuno França
Electric engineer: José Carlos Lopes
Thermic engineer: Maria Luísa Gomes Pereira
Contractor: Construtora de Loureiro
Area: 250 sqm
Completion: 2017