Portuguese studio Spaceworkers has completed a unique single-family home in Sobrado, a Portuguese parish in the municipality of Valongo, district of Porto, Portugal. The project is built in an environment characterized by the typical architecture of a rural context with buildings with sloping roofs and small windows.

The plot where it sits was originally the place where the owners' grandparents' old home was located, a small-scale house full of stories and memories that continue to endure in the family's memory. The proposal for the new home was proposed as a piece whose abstraction would differentiate it from the surroundings, without giving up a calm and silent dialogue towards the outside, capable of offering new perspectives and preserving the privacy of its occupants.
Housing design by Spaceworkers is materialized with a clear concrete volume, where the openings made in the canvases of the façades establish a double dialogue: on the one hand, from the inside, they frame scenes of the distant landscape or even the sky, and on the other, From the outside, they make up the elevations and discreetly suggest part of the occupation of the house.

The interior becomes an interesting game of spaces, lighting, and framing of the exterior landscape that allows for an attractive spatial and visual richness, without giving up a rich interior spatial activation.

The neutral exterior texture of the concrete on the outside contrasts with the light wood and the white walls of the interior where the light, the double-height spatial games, and the more private spaces dialogue with an idea of lightness.


SV House by  Spaceworkers. Photograph by Fernando Guerra.
 

Project description by Spaceworkers

The SV house is located in a rural context surrounded by the typical traditional houses with sloped roofs, small windows, and wrapped by anonymous architecture.

The plot for the house is where once was the owner grandparents house, it’s small in scale but huge in stories and memories for the whole family.

Since the beginning we knew that we wanted to create something disruptive in this environment, something that clearly stands out from the crowd but at the same time was quite and silence for the street, offers privacy to his inhabitants and gave hers a new perspective of the chaotic surroundings.


SV House by  Spaceworkers. Photograph by Fernando Guerra.

The house materialises it self in a concrete block where de openings for the different spaces go beyond the mere need for ventilation and natural lighting. From the outside, they are an important element in the composition of the elevations and in the perception of the occupation of the house that they reveal, but without revealing too much. Internally, these openings focus on framing pieces of the distant landscape, or even the sky, avoiding the close surroundings punctuated by houses.

Each space has a critical look at a particular point in the landscape, allowing users different views of the same landscape depending on the position and size of the window they are looking at.

On the outside, the use of exposed concrete emphasises the idea of solidity that we wanted to express in contrast to the light wood and white walls of the interior that express lightness. It is also in this dichotomy that the house relates to its neighbours and with those who inhabit it and walk through its spaces.

More information

Label
Architects
Text
Spaceworkers. Henrique Marques, Rui Dinis.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Project team
Text
João Ortigão, Marco Santos, Tiago Maciel.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Collaborators
Text
Engineering.- CTJX.
Interior Design.- Olive Grey.
Financial director.- carla duarte - cfo.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Area
Text
378 sqm.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Dates
Text
2015 - 2022.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Location
Text
Sobrado, Valongo, Portugal.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Photography
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
spaceworkers is an architecture and design studio located in Paredes in northern Portugal, founded by the current creative directors Henrique Marques and Rui Dinis and by its financial director Carla Duarte.

spaceworkers® were nominated in 2013 for the Great Indoors Award with the Information Center Of the Rota do Românico, project which in 2014 received a special honorable mention from the Architizer online platform on within the scope of its international architectural award A+ Awards.

In 2015, with the project Casa de Sambade the office won the Building of the Year Award 2015 promoted by the site Archdaily and with the same project also won the A + Awards 2015 in the category Private Houses XL Popular Choice promoted by the platform Architizer. In the same year the office integrated the Architects' Di- rectory promoted by the international magazine Wallpaper *, that every year selects the emerging architects around the world. In 2017, with the Cabo de Vila house, they won the Archdaily Building of the Year Award 2017.
Read more
Published on: February 21, 2024
Cite: "Solid, permeable and welcoming abstraction. Casa SV by Spaceworkers" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/solid-permeable-and-welcoming-abstraction-casa-sv-spaceworkers> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...