Aires Mateus designed this house in Alcobaça, it is the reconstruction of an old building that has an ongoing relationship with previous periods and with the river Baca. We highlight the reinterpretation of the windows on the facades provoking the viewer to imagine the interior of the house.

Memory of project. Aires Mateus

The house designed in the historical center of Alcobaça is a record of overlapping times: A small building reconstructed to perpetuate the vernacular common scale, and a wall thoroughly shaped to house the quiet extension. On the existing building a void is created managing the thickness of the peripheral walls. An absence of space is freed collecting luminosity from a skylight that grants a private and protected atmosphere.

The compartments appear as internal additions, connected to the exterior through reinterpreted windows in the façades, but proposing an unexpected internal space. The extension of the house takes the difference between two levels: The street level and the garden that is generated with the river Baça. The form of the new wall defines courtyards that mediate the contemplation to the exterior. The social areas, work as a spatial continuum that spread through the two times of the intervention.

Text.- Aires Mateus.

CREDITS.-

Architects.- Manuel Rocha, Francisco Xavier.
Team collaborators.- Catarina Bello; Betar, Ecoserviços (enginering), Jaime Coelho (construction Coordination).
Constructor.- Manuel Mateus Frazão.
Date.- 2010-2011 (construction), 2007-2010 (project).
Surface.- 475 m².
Site.- Alcobaça, Portugal.

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Manuel Rocha Aires Mateus. Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1963. Graduates as an architect in F.A./U.T.L., Lisbon Portugal in 1986. Collaboration with architect Gonçalo Byrne since 1983. Collaboration with architect Francisco Aires Mateus since 1988.

Teacher in Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, USA, in 2002 and 2005. Invited teacher in Fakulteta za Arhitekturo, Universa v Ljubljani, Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2003/2004. Teacher in Accademia di Architectura,Mendrízio, Switzerland, since 2001. Professor in Universidade Autónoma, Lisbon, since 1998. Professor in Universidade Lusíada, Lisbon, since 1997. Invited for several seminars and conferences in: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.

Francisco Xavier Aires Mateus. Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1964. Graduates as an architect F.A./U.T.L., Lisbon Portugal in 1987. Collaboration with architect Gonçalo Byrne since 1983. Collaboration with architect Manuel Aires Mateus since 1988.

TEACHING. Visiting professor at Oslo School of Architecture, Oslo 2009. Teacher in Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, USA, in 2005. Teacher at Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio, Università della Svizzera Italiana, since 2001. Professor at Universidade Autónoma in Lisbon since 1998. Invited Teacher for seminaries in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Argentina, England, Brazil, Mexico, Norway, Chile, Brazil, USA, Slovenia, Croatia, Canada and Japan.

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Published on: May 9, 2013
Cite: "House in Alcobaça by Aires Mateus" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/house-alcobaca-aires-mateus> ISSN 1139-6415
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