![]() My project "Lisbon Loft" was selected for the ArchShowcase of international architecture site AECCafe. Check it out here. New project: a refurbishment of an old warehouse in Lisbon waterfront Click images to check it out!.
In times of crisis you may not be able to invest in a new home but you should always invest in the one you already have. Probably the change of house you wished for so long is now hopelessly delayed. Banks are hampering credit and times advise for prudence and cost containment. But the reasons for change, if they aren’t related to the location, should in principle subsist: inadequacy or aging of the current space, because the kitchen, toilet or other rooms are obsolete, or the house needs a general upgrade, or for reasons of functionality that aren’t well solved and in the end have never inspired or convinced you. In times of crisis when dining out, vacations and other luxuries are continuously addressed, home has to be our area of comfort, our retreat, the center of our world. So, it makes all the sense to invest a bit in its improvement. If we can’t move, we must make our house the most welcoming as possible. Turn it into a place that will inspire us on a daily basis, able to give us moments of pleasure and sustain us in rough times. If we can't hire an architect to make us a new house or to remodel the one we thought we would buy, we are likely to succeed in involving him in remodeling the house we already have. To ask for it won't probably cost as much as you're thinking, and the result will make all the difference. Many people have made the idea that an architect will complicate things, proposing expensive and strange solutions , on a whim. There may be exceptions that confirm this prejudice that is, in most cases, profoundly false: A good professional understands what he's asked for and will propose rational solutions in a creative and customized way, optimized for each space. And in most situations, more economical than a solution proposed by a curious or by someone committed to selling a product or equipment. Apart from that a good project is a shot for the ego. For the architect, but also and especially for his client, that beyond experiencing an immeasurable improvement in his daily life, still witnesses the rising of his property's value. Such intervention is always an opportunity. Or, a posteriori, a missed opportunity. A few weeks ago I wrote a text describing how it would be my dream home in Lisbon. I also thought at the time to write some lines about how my out of town dream house, as one might say, my retreat, would be.
It would ideally be on a site with personality: A few trees, preferably a clear and beautiful view with sound exposure. A beach, a lake or a mountain would be potentially idyllic locations. But a large terrain with wavy topography, relatively dense and varied vegetation, to provide shade and allow one to open the house to the surroundings while maintaining enough privacy, would make me a happy man. If for a house in the city my dream is to remodel one of the many vacant buildings that exist at its center, my dream of "cottage" is a building made from scratch, isolated, or at least with a comfortable distance to the constructions nearby. Its shape and configuration will depend mainly on the site in which it will be inserted. So, rather than formally describing a house, this text aims to explain what would be behind its design: - It will be decidedly modern and minimalist. I believe in the poetry of straight line and the house of an architect should be a manifest of his ideals (which is not always the case, from my own experience). - A slight but affirmative mark on the landscape, integrated with attention to context but without complexes, inducing a feeling that the house is embedded in that place, becoming part of it, adding something, reinventing it - making the place: the notion that this place has become unique with the construction of the house and one might be inspired to think, a few years from now, that that building was always there. And that makes perfect sense that it is there. This is not necessarily an immediate sense. To get thick, architecture requires time and needs to be tested and reevaluated twenty or thirty years after it was built. - Will have large aperture between interior and exterior, extending outdoors to indoors and vice versa, but allowing discreetly and effectively to close the house when the occupants are away. - Will be built with simple and robust materials, that will age well but accuse the passage of time. Materials that mature in contact with nature. - Simultaneously delicate and strong, will have great transparency for the most interesting sights, being opaque to the others. Its interior will reflect the informal organization to which aspires a holiday home. Over time, some of the surrounding vegetation will grow around the walls of the house, making its contours less exact and noticeable. - Comfortable and spacious without being huge, it will be fluid but with some recesses and carefully constructed to be cool in summer and warm and cozy in winter. - Will be a place of contemplation, resting and conviviality. Able to inspire great joy and to accept, with dignity, infinite griefs. - A place to live, create bonds and age, knowing that when we’re gone, our descendants will want to keep it. The project of a refurbishment in Portela, near Lisbon, is to be published in one of the "Expresso" next editions. Expresso is the most important weekly newspaper in Portugal. You can take a look on the project here.
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My views on architecture... and life!
AuthorI'm a Lisbon based architect. My architecture practice is founded on a contemporary design philosophy. Archives
September 2020
Posts by name
1. A matter of perspective...
2. Do it yourself! 3. Why is an architect needed? 4. My Dream House 5. My kind of holidays 6. God is in the details 7. My dream house, part II 8. Tigers, whales and some other animals. 9. We can only step on the white stripes! 10. Controversies and unanimity 11. Guest post for Todd Vendituoli 12. Conception and accomplishment 13. The decisive moment 14. From sketch to construction 15. Interesting times 16. From Howard Roark to Steve Jobs 17. The Frankenstein-house 18. Beyond the "Wow-factor" 19. A balance 20. Investing in times of crisis Categories
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