It is a residential project designed by Álvaro Leite Siza on a 2735 m2 plot of land in Portugal where there is already a single-family house. 2001 Casa Leite Faria is a modern house designed with a concrete structural wall for its constructive system. The design of the window openings also has been judicious for greater privacy.
Volume
Intimacy also becomes a problem in this project area, especially with the constant urban densification. There is a factor that considered to maintain a good quality of life so the building volume can respond to the new project, respecting the neighboring houses’ alignment. It also has lower inertia than the others, corresponding to a semi-underground basement with a total construction area of 550 m2.
Design
In the intervention, one of the concerns is to respect the typological and character aspects of the surrounding constructions. The house entrance is at a higher elevation than the land elevation. A semi-underground basement is created so one can conquer intimacy on the entrance. The access to the floor of the rooms and basement is made with ramps that allow safe and frank accessibility.
The service and technical support areas can be found on the lower floor. Two bedrooms and a living room are also placed on this floor. A central staircase can establish the internal vertical communications of the house and there is also a small service staircase that connects this floor to the living room floor in parallel. The middle floor of the house also contains a small toilet, laundry, kitchen, and pantry besides dining and living rooms.
Rooms
The volume of the rooms’ floor breaks with the lower floors’ alignment which is now in perpendicularity with others, creating a protection from the sun to the west, directing the openings of this floor to the garden simultaneously, and the neighboring garden and never to the gables. Three rooms are organized and there is also an open area for the staircase used as a small office.
Details
The openings of the window should be as far away from the gables as possible to create greater privacy for the neighbors and the inhabitants so there are some gables that have no openings. This house is also designed with a constructive system that summed up in an interior thermal insulation box and concrete structural wall to assure existing legislation about thermal comfort and noise.
The house’s upper floor is covered with Prodema wood while the spans’ opening is made according to the previously described criteria with stainless steel frames and protected by the Prodema board. The coverings of this house are made of concrete slab, thermal insulation, and waterproofing canvas. The interior wall is painted in white except for the kitchen and sanitary facilities. The flooring of the interior is pavement with air box except in sanitary installations and kitchen.
2001 Casa Leite Faria Gallery
Photography: Álvaro Leite Siza