Nestled between stone, light, and shadow, the single-family home designed by SO Arquitetura & Design comprises a solid volume interspersed with voids. The ground floor houses the living room, kitchen, bathroom, garage, and an open social area, while the upper floor contains three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
"Casa da Rocha Quebrada" chose exposed concrete as its primary construction material due to its resistance to the saline environment and the passage of time. Inside, exposed concrete and wood are combined, creating an aesthetically pleasing and inviting contrast in its spaces.
Casa da Rocha Quebrada by SO Arquitetura & Design. Photograph by Ivo Tavares Studio.
Project description by SO Arquitetura & Design
An essential house. That's how we like to describe it.
It's neither minimalist nor brutalist. It's simply what it needs to be.
The project arose in a particular context: a house designed for the parents of one of the studio's founders. This gave us freedom and responsibility. The opportunity to design without noise, without compromise, almost as if starting from a blank page. The site, the last vacant lot on a stretch of the southern coast of São Miguel, demanded a solid structure. Between old buildings and a harsh Atlantic landscape, the house rises as the endpoint of a block and, at the same time, as a natural extension of the rock.
The choice of exposed concrete was obvious. A material resistant to time and salt. Raw, but honest. The building presents itself to the street as a mineral mass composed of solids and voids. The recessed and protected openings reveal little of the interior. From the outside, the house seems almost uninhabitable: a recent ruin, a sequence of caves in Rocha Quebrada. But these caves are habitable. Inside, the wood warms the space and contrasts with the coolness of the concrete. The layout is simple: three bedrooms, an open and flowing social area, with natural ventilation and light thanks to a central courtyard that runs through the building. Anything non-essential is absent.
On the south side, the house opens to the sea, but without ostentation. The views are always present, discreetly filtered through the structure. From the natural pools in front, the building appears quiet and unassuming, just stone, light, and shadow.
Matter, proportion, function, and the rest follows.
