by Frari – architecture network

“House 109 faces one of the most important arteries in the city of Vagos, in Portugal” – the National Road EN109.
Since it is designed for residential use, the building is materialized in a uniform body which, through its shape and arrangement, protects itself from the busy road. House 109 has the main facade perpendicular to the layout of the road, contrasting with the pre-existing reality. Thus, the front creates a green space of transition and protection between the house and the road – a barrier that protects it from environmental and sound pollution and, at the same time, grants the necessary privacy.
The entrance, done discreetly through the north side, is celebrated by the great contemplation to the south thanks to the east-to-west windows that embrace the southern façade of the building, which is oriented perpendicularly to the confining artery. This way, the building ensures a side external space that follows the main façade. This space ensures a wide width able to meet the requirements that are imposed, working as a green area for leisure. All compartments are turning to this important external space, ignoring all other possible spaces that are never as favorable in terms of the natural light that they provide.
The building, with its curved shape, ensures ample protection from the wind at the porch, while certifying a greater depth of the external space on the house axis. All rooms look out over the external space through the porch, on the ground floor, or a joint balcony, on the top floor – elements that provide a uniform façade and allow for the volume to extend beyond its limits, always homogeneously. This horizontal façade, just as the plan sets out, allows the upper body of the house to rise and stand out, through the retreat of the ground limits, composed by Corten colored walls that, together with big windows, are distinguished from the unavoidable white body of the upper part of the building, in a game where structural balance and materiality mix together to lighten up a volume with great dimensions.
The simple and solid piece, intends to position itself as a response to interventions in lands neighboring to national roads, making them more habitable and benefit from their spaces.
Category:Private HomesYear:2022Location:Vagos, PortugalArchitects:Frari - architecture networkLead Architect: Maria FradinhoDesign Team: Maria FradinhoContractor:House 109Client: PrivatePhotographer: Ivo Tavares Studio