House in Estoril | Jorge Mealha Arquitecto

Located on an impressively sloping site in Estoril, a neighborhood of Lisbon facing a woody valley, those symmetrically mirrored houses proposes an arrangement of several solids trying to attenuate the overall mass due to a huge functional program requested by the client. A set of regulations, defined in the city council urbanistic project, from distances to borders, maximum height and total amount of construction area and volume were also a condition to be addressed and surpassed. The resultant form proposes a dialogue between a range of different solids and voids, creating a variety of covered and uncovered patios, where light and shadow is used to emphasize form and proposes a changeable reading of space and volumes during the day. The screening/shading devices, create textured rhythm in some facades of the house emphasizing volumes and controlling the relationships between external and internal spaces. Both houses play with concrete, wood and white plaster finishes, trying to create pleasant spaces. Some circulations, as the staircases, are in white painted metal slightly detached from the walls, leaving opportunity for light to pass in between.