Architecture studio based in Porto, Fala Atelier, was commisioned to design two buildings with a similar appearance, in Porto, Portugal.

The shape is one very long and another very short. The programme are six houses – a row of four identical of 30-square-metre and two exceptional, one very small and other bigger alone – around one common garden, hidden inside a city block. All sharing similar shapes, materiality and finishes.
 
"One architecture tying the fragmented reality."
The design by Fala Atelier of each home show a living - kitchen area and a bathroom on the ground floor an pair windows, one of which acts as the door, with a stair leading to a sleeping area placed above the bathroom.
 
"All the houses follow a very simple arrangement, a double-height social level below with a bathroom and a private space above."
Filipe Magalhães, Fala Atelier.

On the outside, the houses define a continuous colonnade framing a collective garden remembering the mediterranean space concept in Aldo Rossi architecture.
 

Project description by Fala Atelier

Two buildings with a similar appearance, one very long and another very short. Six houses – four identical and two exceptional – around one common garden, hidden inside a city block. One architecture tying the fragmented reality.

The composition of each inner space combines orthogonal, diagonal and curved lines. The slightly distorted perimeter of the rooms sets the frames; the main spaces come from a subtraction of conflicting surfaces that comprise secondary programs. The thin metal poles bring in vertical tension; the round openings connect uneven programs. Acting within a very small volume, this combination of ambivalent geometries achieves quite unconventional living rooms.

The materiality of the awkward interiors follows their complexity. Walls are merely white, the horizontal slabs are abrupt concrete, the floors display polished blue marble and the tilted ceiling is painted in pink. Wooden doors, exaggerated handles and hints of pink marble accompany this game of surfaces.

On the outside, the houses define a continuous colonnade framing a collective garden where it becomes impossible to understand where each houses begins or ends. The façade is an overlap of several rhythmic rows - the thin metal columns, the striped blue doors, the black boxy skylights. The roof is made of two layers: a pink wavy plane is attached below the metal sheets emphasising the thinness of the surface. All around, the most honest and beautiful urban scenario defines the idyllic background for such an architectural exercise.

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Architects
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Project team
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Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, Rute Peixoto, Lera Samovich, Paulo Sousa.
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Collaborators
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Landscape architect.- Pomo.
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Contractors
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Civiflanco lda.
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Area
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190m²
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Dates
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2017-19
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Photography
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Fala Atelier is a naïve architecture practice based in Porto, led by Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares and Ahmed Belkhodja. Established in 2013, the atelier works with methodic optimism on a wide range of projects, from territories to birdhouses.

Filipe Magalhães (Porto, 1987) graduated in architecture at faculdade de arquitectura do Porto and Fakulteta za Arhitekturo in Ljubljana; wrote the thesis ‘between the abstract and the figurative’. Worked with Harry Gugger in Basel and Aanaa in Tokyo. Visiting professor at Bratislava’s faculty of architecture.

Ana Luisa Soares (Porto, 1988) graduated in architecture at faculdade de arquitectura do Porto and Tokyo university; wrote the thesis ‘The matter of ideas’. Worked with Harry Gugger in Basel and Toyo Ito in Tokyo. Visiting professor at Bratislava’s faculty of architecture.

Ahmed Belkhodja (Lausanne, 1990) graduated in architecture at ETH Zurich after having also studied in Lausanne, Gothenburg and Singapore; worked with Harry Gugger in Basel, Obra architects in New York, and Atelier Bow-wow in Tokyo.
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Published on: July 20, 2020
Cite: "Rhythm, repetition and materials. Six houses and a garden by Fala Atelier" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/rhythm-repetition-and-materials-six-houses-and-a-garden-fala-atelier> ISSN 1139-6415
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