The house MRMT is located in the city’s centre and its urban context is defined by the typical street where the lot is positioned. The street is characterized by the residential multiple-family and single-family buildings with 2 or 3 floors, by the narrow lots which, habitually, have access to a private yard in the interstice of the block.
Project: MRMT House
Studio: Pedro Mosca & Pedro Gonçalves Arquitectos, Lda.
Website: https://www.pmpg.pt/
https://www.instagram.com/pmpg_arquitectos/
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 2021
Area: 220 m2
Location: Porto, Portugal
Program: Housing
Design Team:
Pedro Mosca (pedro.mosca@pmpg.pt)
Pedro Gonçalves (pedro.goncalves@pmpg.pt)
With the collaboration of Luísa Barreira , Arch
CREDITS:
Construction: Encore – Engenharia, Construção e Reabilitação
Photography Name: Alexander Bogorodskiy
The challenge for this project was greatly defined by the building’s pre-existent condition of a semi-detached house.
In order to maintain the urban cohesion, to respect and to assure the continuity of the house’s history, we decided to preserve the original main walls, as well as the window and door openings of the principal facade – the one that faces the street. Therefore, and regardless of our intervention, it is still possible to recognize the guiding lines that identify the symmetry of the two houses that used to be identical.
The urban alignment of the neighbors’ rear façade isn’t regular, and that is the reason why we decided to prioritize the continuity of the twin house’s alignment, in all of the floors, with the exception of the ground floor, where we mimic the alignment of the second neighbor building, allowing for the augmentation of the built area and the maximum usage of the lot.
Furthermore, the house is organized in three floors and the staircase acts as the element that separates the spaces that face the street from the spaces that face the private yard. The ground floor is dedicated to the social areas of the residence as the first and second floors are dedicated to the private areas.
As a result – and in the light of what happened in the pre-existent house -, the street front of the ground floor is occupied by the entrance corridor and the garage. The kitchen faces the yard and the living room, which is located in the new extension and benefits from the direct interaction with the garden. On the first floor, we find two bedrooms, facing the street, one bathroom, and the main bedroom with one ensuite bathroom and a balcony that faces the yard.
The augmentation of the height of the roof’s ridge and its new construction, allowed for the addition of a third floor with differentiated spaces: an office and a study room facing the street, and another room with balcony facing the yard of the lot.
When it comes to the interior materiality, it was used walnut wood, as a contrast with the white color of the walls, as a manner of emphasizing the shape’s design, accentuating the shadowed spaces and the enlightened ones.
In a similar manner, on the exterior, the contrast of the different materials’ colors is reiterated in the form of the white colored capoto insulation system and the black colored metal.
