Gerês House by Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design

Architects: Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design
Location: Vieira do Minho, Braga, Portugal
Year: 2015
Photo courtesy: Carvalho Araújo, Arquitectura e Design
Description:

Gerês house is situated on a lofty incline in the Caniçada Valley where there was a little house and a stream. The current building was situated in an upper level of the area in the end obligated to little avalanches, which decided its devastation and the migration of the new development.

The new development relates with the area in an exceptionally unconstrained manner, exploiting its precarious slant, of the little stream and of the advantaged view over the scene. The entrance to the house is produced using the upper level, guaranteeing a full view over the part and over the building that fits on the ground such as a stone. On the other hand, it’s inside the house where the visual extent permits us to (re)discover the area underneath, described by the sporadic stream’s course that outcomes in a little lake at the lower level.

The building comprises of two components, a vast wood volume that lays on a solid base, which stretches out over the area and on the water line. The utilization of these two materials reaches out inside the house, which does not look for a routine project, but instead substantial, practical and multipurpose spaces, where joy and work are blended.

The social space of the house expect exceptional significance, emerged in an expansive focal family room which reaches out to the outside through a huge porch. The kitchen and administrations are masterminded on the same floor of the front room and the most close program comes at a second level, relating with the first as a mezzanine.