The house is located in a residential neighborhood in Nova Oeiras in the Oeiras district, a neighborhood with a modernist urbanism, which is a great example of the concept called “garden city”. This neighborhood has an area of houses built in spacious plots, each with a leafy garden. The house appeared a bit unbalanced in its design. On the main façade we had an interesting equilibrium with a porch and a balcony, but the rear façade had no valuable elements.
The extension consists in building a new volume attached to the rear façade of the old house, extending the house through the garden redesigning its backyard façade. In this new volume that extends the house, appears as a piece of contemporary architecture. To maintain the identity of the house, we reproduced from the porch, a hexagonal tile pattern to coat the new volume. You can see the pattern also on the sliding grates of the existing windows; this unifies both old and new, parts of the house. We planned this enlargement of the main house as an autonomous and distinct volume but, at the same time, with a common element to both the original and the new construction.
On the ground floor we created a spacious living room with a wide view to the garden. The kitchen contiguous but separated from the living room, enjoys the same great view as well through its large glass sliding doors. From the lower step of the staircase to the right façade, we enlarged the window frame creating one single big glass screen. With this solution we gave natural light to the staircase, underlining its vertical amplitude. On the first floor we have the private area, composed of one toilet, two bedrooms and a suite with a walk-in closet and a bathroom. These last three compartments are placed on the rear of the house offering natural sunlight and a view to the backyard.
