Site Specific: Olidouro House

oitoo - Oliveira do Douro, Gaia, Portugal, 2019-2021

O Even though the charming historic centres are the most visible face of refurbishments and reuse interventions, it seems that this architectural theme is fertile ground for implementation throughout the expansive 20th century peripheries surrounding our biggest cities.

In the last 50 years, urban sprawl has blended rural and urban territories in such a way that it is now nearly impossible to view such territories in this dual light. Dwellings located in these areas themselves are testimonies of this hybridisation and the informality that often goes hand in hand with a ‘soft’ compliance with building codes and zoning regulations. In this area these former rural plots were often originally occupied by “warehouses“, storage buildings which could be lived in once an extra floor was added above the working space at ground floor level. In time, the comfort requirements of contemporary living drove successive improvements with the outcome being that the rural-based logistical use, originally reserved for ground level, was also appropriated for residential use.

These building processes have seldom have had the intervention of a designer and can often be odd or sometimes even surprising in their synthesis of vernacular sensibilities with modern possibilities. 

Oitoo was commissioned to propose a refurbishment for a house of this typology. The initial brief required that the pressing need for thermal comfort and energy efficiency was addressed. Upgrading the house in this way meant a comprehensive overhaul of the existing structure by seeking a new overall coherence.

The first step was identifying the strategic issues to solve: the ground floor, originally an all-encompassing garage was now the living area, with insufficient clearance and a scattered layout; the back façade had little relation with the generous backyard; the backyard itself is cluttered with incongruous structures…

The updated brief asked for a space geared to accommodate large family gatherings. The proposal answers this requirement by creating a continuous living room and a new, generous, winter garden facing the backyard, inverting the hierarchy of what used to be “main” and “back”. As a consequence, convenience of use takes priority over public representation as the previous backyard becomes the core of a new private realm of family leisure.

The new addition, the double height winter garden, is the key to unlocking this new hierarchy. It establishes the backyard as the main façade of the house: an intermediate space connecting ground floor, upper floor and the garden while simultaneously contributing to the passive climate control for all the interior spaces.

NOTES

Thanks to Nuno Rodrigues and everyone at oitoo for their help in compiling this post.

Photographs © Adriano Mura.

Published 5th May 2023.