Bak Gordon Arquitectos built the house on a plot between party walls, narrow and long, previously occupied by a small industrial pavilion. Approximately the plot has dimensions of 7 m x 26 m, in which the house is developed.
Seeking an intelligent dialogue with the surrounding urban environment, the house is divided into two volumes that share a common patio, accessible from a cool loggia, entirely covered with handmade tiles. Through either the more private spaces of bedrooms and offices or the social spaces, the house opens horizontally and vertically.
The façade combines concrete as well as handmade green tiles, anodized aluminum frames, and thermo-modified wood. The accesses are developed on the ground floor, and a wooden grid is incorporated into the façade, revealing a ventilated interval between the interior and exterior.
House in Rua São Francisco de Borja by Bak Gordon Arquitectos. Photograph by Francisco Nogueira.
House in Rua São Francisco de Borja by Bak Gordon Arquitectos. Photograph by Francisco Nogueira.
Description of project by Bak Gordon Arquitectos
Located in the Lapa neighbourhood, next to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, this house is built on a narrow and long plot, measuring approximately 7 m x 26 m. Originally the plot was occupied by a small industrial pavilion, which was entirely removed to make way for the new house.
The idea of building a house integrated into a block, where only the façade relates to the city and its context is a theme that has always been part of Bak Gordon's thinking.
How to build a house with the language of its time, that simultaneously respects and enhances the virtues of the place?
The façade reveals this concern, letting the internal environments of the house itself echo. Whether through the ground floor and the way the entrances are developed (access door and garage door) in a wooden grid, leaving a glimpse of a ventilated interval between interior and exterior, or at the level of the dining room with a single window in the façade, or even with a kind of subtracted space on the living room floor, where a small garden / flower box ensures the transition between interior and exterior environments.
House in Rua São Francisco de Borja by Bak Gordon Arquitectos. Photograph by Francisco Nogueira.
The house develops along the length of the plot, mostly in two volumes that share a common patio, accessible from a fresh loggia, entirely covered in handmade tiles. In a kind of promenade, the house reveals itself in multiple directions, whether horizontally between the more private bedroom and office spaces, or vertically through the social spaces, until reaching the roof and enjoying the magnificent panoramic views over the Tagus River.
The combination of exposed concrete in the façades and ceilings, as well as the green handmade tiles, the anodized aluminium frames or the thermomodified wood in the main facade, give the building an important personality and contribute to the atmosphere of the place.
