Maquette finale

Of the many private houses designed by the architect, the two at Ponte de Lima are the best known. Two parallelepipeds stand on a steep slope: one is cantilevered, jutting out from the slope; the other follows its incline. Two very different solutions for the same approach: the architect wants the landscape to envelop the inhabitants, whom he has placed high up so that they get a fine view over the valley. The clients, two brothers, have a different view of the horizon: one from a window, the other through a sloping, partly transparent roof. This roof was the choice of the residents, because in their imagination, that is what defines a building as a house. It is also the element that gives the whole building an unstable tension, and makes it into an iconic achievement.