Designed by Álvaro Leite Siza, Casa Francisco Ramos Pinto is a residential project located at Av. Professor Egas Moniz da Freguesia de Gulpilhares, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. It is a single-family house designed with a special program, responding to the need imposed by a tragic accident that killed one of the members of the family of this house.
Design
This house is designed and projected carefully, considering that it has to be walked by a wheelchair person. There is also a need to level the small ground slope to create better mobility on the ground and also achieve greater intimacy to the west and south. The intimacy problem becomes a factor to consider due to the constant urban densification to maintain a good quality of living.
At the level street, this house also has a technical entrance that designed with a connection to the engine room. In this room, there is a small motorized platform that creates vertical access to the corridor. All programs at this level are organized well: living room, bedrooms, kitchen, pantry and laundry, toilet, and so on. Each room in this house has its own independent toilet.
Rooms
The middle room of this house has its own toilet that equipment and measures that made based on the legal regulations for handicaps. The doors and corridor are oversized for interconnection and good mobility between the house spaces. Thus, this house is organized to allow easy access and the use of rooms by a handicap to provide maximum independence and freedom.
The upper floor is an area of a small office and library. This house is also closed to the east and north and it opens to the west and south where there is a vast green area with awesome sunshine remains and a swimming pool. The architect organizes the house space to produce a rational articulation of volumes that unified by an organic and figurative cover to give unity to this house and also provide a variated ceilings.
Details
The rhythmic openings optimize the environment of this house in this type of accentuated thermal amplitudes’ climate. The constructive system is added and summed up in the concrete structural wall, double brick wall, and airbox with thermal insulation to ensure compliance with existing legislation.
The walls of the exterior are painted in white with a granite base while the spans’ opening is made based on the traditional scheme on the surface of the walls with wooden frames. The walls of the interior are plastered and painted with the same color as the exterior walls, except for the kitchen and sanitary installations.
The floor inside this house is the floor with an airbox while the sidewalks of the exterior are made in Portuguese sidewalk and some areas with granite slabs.
Casa Francisco Ramos Pinto Gallery
Photography: Álvaro Leite Siza