The Hintze Ribeiro project designs a set of multifamily housing with various typologies. It has four floors above the ground level, a total of 10 units and is integrated into the urban context of Leça da Palmeira combining different alignments and heights with neighboring buildings.
Leça da Palmeira is a small urban center near the city of Porto that has a strong connection to the sea. This proximity was the central factor in the development of this project, where nautical references are evident. The goal was to create a discreet, luminous, and integrated building context, capable of withstanding the harshness of the maritime environment.
Formal and constructive references are evident, namely the Parnaso building, the Rua do Molhe building (José Carlos Loureiro), and the Bach 28 building (Ricardo Bofill). The exterior brick walls, based on the horizontal markings of the floor slabs, articulated an irregular composition of vertical openings.
A formal design was achieved that combined high-quality materials, enabling a balanced image and suitable performance of the building's energy. With a north-south solar orientation, it has a central staircase that provides access to different floors. The building has ten independent apartments, including four T1s, two T2s, and four T3s.
The -1 floor is intended for parking and storage, while the 1st floor has a common entrance hall accessible from the street, the vertical access, the entrance to the parking floor, the condominium space, the solid waste compartment, and two apartments (T3 and T1). Floors 2 and 3 are the type floors, each one has three apartments: one T3 facing the interior of the lot, one T2, and one T1 facing the Hintze Ribeiro street. The last floor is set back and has a T3 unit facing the interior of the lot and a T1 unit facing the Hintze Ribeiro street.
The building structure was developed with lightweight slabs and reinforced concrete frames, with visible concrete slabs. The exterior walls are composed by white Alcácer brick from Cerâmica Vale da Gândara. The roof is flat, and the exterior guards are made of iron, with a forged finish in Silex C197 from CIN. The balconies and terraces have wooden deck floors and concrete slabs.
Inside, the common circulation spaces were covered with resistant and washable materials to withstand the inherent load of daily use. The inside of the apartments was finished with high-quality materials to create a more comfortable environment (both in terms of space and acoustics). The project also emphasizes a gradual assimilation of levels of proximity, with a more contained and private entrance that leads to the bedrooms, culminating in the social areas (living room and kitchen). The organizational layout of the building results in a harmonious sequence, promoting unique housing units that establish deep connections with the exterior.
