The house is born from the land, from his desire to find the light available on a very steep plot facing north. But it is always developed in an integrative attitude and in connection with its very difficult topography. The budget was quite small and the challenge was great, but few housing projects could make my personal research as an architect practicing on Madeira Island clearer: how to build in such complex orographies without large walled constructions? How can we take advantage of the contrariness of the relief in the development of the house? How can we try to integrate the architectural object into very steep plots?
History brings us many examples. The American houses of the middle of the last century, built on steep slopes, provided some interesting solutions. The “case study houses” designed by architects such as Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen or Pierre Koenig sought more economical solutions with new materials, but in many cases and whenever their models focused on steep slopes, the formal solutions of their architecture brought models that took advantage of the topography and became spectacular examples that were totally integrated into the landscape. Of all the architects of this era, John Lautner is the one who speaks to me the most, using every centimeter of the area in which he intervenes to create unique models, extraordinarily well-placed houses, where he takes advantage of all the setbacks that the topography introduces to create unique and extraordinary dwellings.
In Madeira, our orography can also represent a setback, or rather - as I prefer to think - an opportunity.
The “Cabeço do Resto House”, which has received some attention and has been published in several architectural magazines and websites, is a good example of how the territory and sun exposure are the first tools in the modulation of built space and the guiding thread of the architect's entire intervention. The placement of the house in contact with the existing topography defines its multiple elevations, but it is its desire to integrate into the landscape that defines the form, which separates the private and social programs, establishes and arranges the volumes and blends very naturally into the terrain. The house finds the highest elevation to seek sunlight, but the topography forces it to unfold, creating three volumes: below, the private program nestled in the terrain; above, the social program that rises around the spectacular view; between the two, a vertical access.
The philosophy behind the intervention can only come about with a sensitive and intelligent client, who is deprived of the natural impulse to bring a set of more or less appropriate moments into the project. I was lucky enough to be able to do this, which is why I'd like to say a final word of thanks to the owner of the project, my friend Antonio Trindade, who has always believed in this path and actively participated in the development of the house, with a demanding but understanding and helpful spirit.
The result of this integrative approach, in which the architectural object is born from the fundamental references of the place, and in which the architecture develops without any collages or fads, comes very much from my training and research as an architect. In fact, Portuguese architecture lives very much around this theme, that our buildings have a sense of belonging to the place and wouldn't make sense outside of it.
Portugal and Madeira have great architects. Of the many I appreciate, I would like to mention the great Siza Vieira who has insisted that “form follows function”, which I interpret as a willingness to think before designing, to design from existing references, be they program, sun exposure or others. In Madeira's topography, let me add that form comes from place.
