House Gonçalo Alves

The architecture project of the House Gonçalo Alves, is designed for a building with an estimated gross building area of ​​260.00m2, which includes garage, ground floor, 1st floor and terrace, located at Quinta da Coutada in Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal.

The Project responds to a demanding program established by the owner which foresees the construction of a house with garage in basement of 60 m2 to park two cars, a ground floor with entrance hall of 10m2 and 6m2 social bathroom, a kitchen of 25 m2, the dining and living room with 50 m2 and an office with 16 m2. The entrance hall provides access to the upper floor via a staircase and to the patio with swimming pool.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms for the couple, daughter and visitors. The guest room will have 15 m2, the daughter's room will have 19.50 m2 including a closet of 3.80 m2. The 17 m2 suite will have a private bathroom of 5.50 m2 and a closet of 8 m2. The 6.70 m2 social bathroom will support the daughter's room and the guest room.

The architecture was inspired by the architectural language of the modern movement, with its simple and rectilinear lines and in particular the modernist work of the American architects of the 1950s and 1960s. Thus, a design consisting of two volumes perpendicular to each other was chosen, with the ground floor being perpendicular to the public road and the volume of the upper floor parallel to this road. The Euclidean geometry that designs the dwelling is only disturbed by the lines that define the garage access ramp forming a circular space, where cars can intersect or even park, without preventing other cars from leaving and entering the covered garage space.

The guidelines were extremely important defining the volumes. The living room and kitchen will face the patio and pool area, protected from the prevailing north winds. A flap with swiveling blades was also designed to allow light to be controlled during warmer periods. From a functional point of view the kitchen has two accesses, one through the entrance hall and the other directly into the living room.