Lapa is located on the outskirts of Santo Tirso, in an old allotment, wedged between the Ave River and the train line to the east, and the national road to the west.
It is a somewhat atypical subdivision, with inaccuracies in the execution and a disproportionate scale ratio between the space allocated to the public road and the private area of the lots. The rules imposed on the Lapa lot were quite restrictive and as the time available for the project and the work did not admit the possibility of doing an alteration to the allotment project, we assumed the prescriptions for the lot as if it were a physical pre-existence.
Thus, we started with a parallelepiped volume, defined by the implantation area and
maximum height allowed, which underwent a process of excavation and subtraction in order to generate interior spaces and relations with the exterior. The initial abstract volume results in a shape with recesses – lapas – that generate and react to the uses of the house.
Privacy, adaptability and efficiency were the key intentions for the interior organization. The living area opens to the south, but as it coincides with the public road, we decided to increase the ceiling height and raise the window, maintaining a relationship with the outside when the inhabitant is standing, but protecting those who are sitting from outside eyes.
The generic ''living room – dining room – kitchen'' sequence is maintained, but despite providing a fluid relationship between the spaces, where it is possible to circulate around the island, through the kitchen and dining room, it also allows to close the living room from kitchen. On the ground floor we also find a space with a private sanitary installation, facing south, but protected from the street by a porch, which in the first phase of use will be an office, but is expected to be used in the future as a bedroom suite. In the back of the house we find a small technical and laundry space, related to the kitchen and its porch.
On the upper floor there are 3 rooms that receive light from the south, connected by a common balcony, whose limit is defined by the green roof that covers the taller area of the living room.
The work results in an abstract, austere piece, with a predominance of white, where the process of excavation and subtraction sculpted the final shape – Lapa.
