Marnoto House

The Marnoto House is located in the city centre of Ílhavo. It is established a rehabilitation and extension method which privileges the architectural and aesthetical composition but also the acknowledgment of our past legacy. Thus, it is settled upon dichotomies such as, past and present, corporeal and abstract, being and becoming, fragmentation and wholeness, subtlety and seduction.

It is preserved the authenticity of the vernacular architecture, called Casa Gandaresa. But, as a disruptive discourse, its extension results in a subtle, elemental and austere volume. On one hand, the private spaces are organised in the existing building since it’s suitable for the dimensions of its small windows; on the other hand, the common spaces and technical services are organised in the new volume as it faces the private garden through a large and geometrical glazing wall, reinforcing the indoor/outdoor relationship.

The permanence of the past heritage, embodied in its iconography and transhistorical condition, is merged by an innovative and creative process, resulting in its architectural transformation. On derelict architecture, we compromise rehabilitation but also requalification, bringing life into an obsolete building, with its own set of unique characteristics such as the example of Casa Gandaresa, thus marking a harmonious relationship between the history of that building, where the present “writing” becomes part of its evolution.