Architecture studio fala was commissioned to design a new house in Marco de Canaveses, a small city located on the bank of the Támega River, a tributary of the Duero River, in Portugal. The clients requested that the home be capable of housing three different generations of the same family.

Each of the generations implied a program of different needs and requirements. The architects formalized three different and specific private spaces for each of the generations, according to age. A game of opposites was carried out in which the common spaces of the house are constructed as the negative of the private spaces, generating unorthodox results.
Named House for Three Generations, the proposal from the fala architecture studio is a single-family home formed from a square floor plan, with its corners pointing to the four cardinal points, and a pyramidal roof. Internally, the spaces are divided according to the members of each generation, generating apparently arbitrary but extremely precise shapes. The living area is built around a non-structural pillar that serves as a spatial attraction device.

All wooden floors are placed centrifugally facing the column, allowing the separation between the different common activities to be highlighted. The building has different textures: a continuous gray exposed concrete, internally the concrete texture is painted white, and alternates with the large square windows and the smaller round ones. The metal fireplace finishes the object, a central element that gives cohesion to the united whole.


House for three generations by fala. Photograph by Ivo Tavares.


House for three generations by fala. Photograph by Ivo Tavares.

Project description by fala

The house stands in a corner plot of a small Portuguese village; it is meant to house three generations of the same family. Each generation is assigned a private space with a different shape; the given shapes are apparently arbitrary yet extremely precise. The communal living area is the negative of the private spaces and presents an unorthodox form. The relationship between private and public programs induces an almost obscene domestic environment (in the theatrical sense of the word).

The house has a square plan and a pyramidal roof; its corners point at the cardinal directions. Along the five equally important elevations, one finds a continuous texture of exposed grey concrete, white painted concrete, large square windows, and smaller round windows. The metal chimney ends the object, holding it together.

Like most houses, this one is made of rooms, windows, doors, floors, and white walls. Somewhere in the living area, a rough column is added and all the wooden floors are laid in a centrifugal manner, marking the separation between different common activities. Although nearly central, the column is not structurally necessary and, as such, doesn’t touch the ceiling. Incidentally, the column acts as a punctuating device, serving as a hint to the physical unity of the house, a concrete square in the middle of the world.

More information

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Architects
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fala. Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, Julia Andreychenko.
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Project team
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Paulo Sousa (engineering), ASV (contractor).
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Client
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Private.
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Area
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800sqm.
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Dates
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Design.- 2014.
Completion.- 2021.
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Location
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Marco de Canaveses, Portugal.
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Budget
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€150,000.
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Photography
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Giulietta Margot, Ivo Tavares, Ricardo Loureiro, fala.
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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: October 31, 2023
Cite: "Stitching times and spaces. House for three generations by fala" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/stitching-times-and-spaces-house-three-generations-fala> ISSN 1139-6415
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