Diagonal House

This villa, located on the surroundings of the city of Aveiro, is part of a housing complex of allotment.

Formally, the architectural piece is restricted by the alignments imposed by the Allotment Plan in which it is inserted, and which demarcates its outer limits. The volume resulting from these alignments is subsequently developed through a cut with a diagonal direction, allowing the volume to be vertically and horizontally separated into two, with facades of different widths to ensure the desired programmatic distribution. It is, therefore, a non-homogeneous piece, composed by multiple volumes forming a single body.

Each volume is treated as a “box” with uniform perimeter, whose tops, in the longitudinal direction, are opened to the landscape through translucent spans. The volumes allow different experiences inside and different relationships with the outside.
This guarantees the diversity of desired experiences indoor and outdoor, despite of the lot’s small dimension.

One of the volumes on the ground floor expands towards the road direction, ensuring the frontal alignment with the remaining dwellings in the allotment where the Diagonal House is inserted.
This also allows the drawback of that same volume on the rear facade, allowing the pool to approach the building’s façade and thus ensuring a direct relationship between them. At this point, it is possible to jump from the inside of the house to the pool, or simply enjoy the light effects that the reflection of the water gives to the upper console. The chromatic game of black and white allows to define the exception of this volume, which becomes dark grey in contrast to the remaining two, to highlight not only the moment of architectonic composition beauty but, mainly, the degree of proximity between the internal and external uses.

The house is surrounded by green landscaped spaces, with the exception of a ceramic deck area in the backyard, which allows the transition from the use of the dining room to the outside. This area is protected by a pergola that draws itself on the continuity of the adjacent volume, as if it fragmented itself until it became minimal, stylized, pieces.

In short, this house is the result of a pragmatic game, where the intention of internal and external spatial organization commands the formal definition of the ensemble, ensuring that the Casa Diagonal is endowed with all the characteristics requested by the Work Owner, despite the urban restrictions imposed.