House in Bom Jesus
Braga, Portugal · 2007
Photo · Photo by Luís Ferreira Alves
A precedent for integrating a long, board-marked concrete residential volume into a sloping landscape, utilizing stepped planes and deep horizontal recesses to negotiate the topography.
- What we like about this project
- Delicate climbing vines hanging over the raw concrete edge, softening the monolithic mass.
Materials
- board-marked-concrete
- glass
- stone-pavers
- turf
Visual identifiers
- board-marked-concrete
- stepped-volume
- horizontal-recess
- hillside-integration
- concrete-staircase
Style tags
- minimalist
- brutalist
- regional-modernism
Visual tags
- brutalist-tendency
- minimalist
- subterranean-feel
- landscape-integration
- residential
- Geometry
- A long, low-slung horizontal volume composed of stepped concrete planes that follow the natural slope of the hillside.
- Facade system
- Load-bearing board-marked concrete walls with recessed sliding glass doors.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete retaining walls and slabs
- Spatial scale
- A long, low-profile residential scale, integrated into the topography with a concrete exterior staircase.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight casting sharp, angled shadows from the upper concrete ledge onto the lower facade.
- Atmosphere
- A quiet, monolithic stillness where the heavy concrete structure feels anchored into the earth.
- Environmental context
- Set on a terraced hillside with manicured lawns, native groundcover, and young trees under a clear blue sky.
- Spatial experience
- The building emerges from the landscape, with a deep horizontal recess on the lower level creating a sheltered transition between the interior and the expansive lawn.
- Composition rhythm
- Strong horizontal bands of concrete are balanced by the diagonal line of the hillside and the stepping exterior staircase.
- Style reading
- Portuguese Minimalist Brutalism
- Program
- Single-family private residence
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- board-marked-concrete, glass, stone-pavers, turf
- Visual identifiers
- board-marked-concrete, stepped-volume, horizontal-recess, hillside-integration, concrete-staircase
- Style tags
- minimalist, brutalist, regional-modernism
- Visual tags
- brutalist-tendency, minimalist, subterranean-feel, landscape-integration, residential
- Geometry
- A long, low-slung horizontal volume composed of stepped concrete planes that follow the natural slope of the hillside.
- Facade system
- Load-bearing board-marked concrete walls with recessed sliding glass doors.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete retaining walls and slabs
- Spatial scale
- A long, low-profile residential scale, integrated into the topography with a concrete exterior staircase.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight casting sharp, angled shadows from the upper concrete ledge onto the lower facade.
- Atmosphere
- A quiet, monolithic stillness where the heavy concrete structure feels anchored into the earth.
- Environmental context
- Set on a terraced hillside with manicured lawns, native groundcover, and young trees under a clear blue sky.
- Spatial experience
- The building emerges from the landscape, with a deep horizontal recess on the lower level creating a sheltered transition between the interior and the expansive lawn.
- Composition rhythm
- Strong horizontal bands of concrete are balanced by the diagonal line of the hillside and the stepping exterior staircase.
- Style reading
- Portuguese Minimalist Brutalism
- Program
- Single-family private residence
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture