House in Maia
Maia, Portugal · 2007
Photo · Photo by Luís Ferreira Alves
A precedent for minimalist residential design demonstrating a seamless indoor-outdoor transition using floor-to-ceiling glass, a continuous ceiling plane, and a walled courtyard garden.
- What we like about this project
- The interior wood flooring planks run perpendicular to the exterior timber decking boards, subtly shifting the direction of movement.
Materials
- hardwood-flooring
- timber-decking
- glass
- minimalist-steel-frames
- plastered-walls
Visual identifiers
- floor-to-ceiling-glass
- walled-courtyard
- timber-decking
- horizontal-overhang
- indoor-outdoor-transition
Style tags
- minimalist
- modernist
- regional-modernism
Visual tags
- minimalist-residential
- courtyard-house
- panoramic-glazing
- seamless-threshold
- portuguese-modernism
- Geometry
- A strong horizontal composition defined by parallel planes: the dark polished interior floor, the timber deck, the manicured lawn, and the flat white boundary walls. The ceiling plane extends outward to form a deep, continuous overhang.
- Facade system
- Minimalist sliding glass door system with ultra-thin profiles.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete slabs allowing for a wide, column-free horizontal opening.
- Spatial scale
- A wide, single-story residential living space with a low, horizontal ceiling height that emphasizes the panoramic view.
- Lighting
- The interior is kept in deep shadow, contrasting sharply with the bright, direct daylight illuminating the outdoor courtyard and lawn.
- Atmosphere
- Serene, private, and highly ordered, with a stark contrast between the cool interior shade and the sunlit green courtyard.
- Environmental context
- A private, walled residential courtyard in Maia, Portugal, featuring manicured grass, stepping stones, and young trees.
- Spatial experience
- A compressed, shaded interior threshold opens up to a bright, walled courtyard garden, dissolving the boundary between indoor living space and the landscape through floor-to-ceiling sliding glass.
- Composition rhythm
- A strict horizontal alignment of floor, deck, and ceiling planes, punctuated by the thin vertical lines of the sliding glass door frames.
- Style reading
- Souto de Moura minimalist modernism
- Program
- Private residential living room
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- hardwood-flooring, timber-decking, glass, minimalist-steel-frames, plastered-walls
- Visual identifiers
- floor-to-ceiling-glass, walled-courtyard, timber-decking, horizontal-overhang, indoor-outdoor-transition
- Style tags
- minimalist, modernist, regional-modernism
- Visual tags
- minimalist-residential, courtyard-house, panoramic-glazing, seamless-threshold, portuguese-modernism
- Geometry
- A strong horizontal composition defined by parallel planes: the dark polished interior floor, the timber deck, the manicured lawn, and the flat white boundary walls. The ceiling plane extends outward to form a deep, continuous overhang.
- Facade system
- Minimalist sliding glass door system with ultra-thin profiles.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete slabs allowing for a wide, column-free horizontal opening.
- Spatial scale
- A wide, single-story residential living space with a low, horizontal ceiling height that emphasizes the panoramic view.
- Lighting
- The interior is kept in deep shadow, contrasting sharply with the bright, direct daylight illuminating the outdoor courtyard and lawn.
- Atmosphere
- Serene, private, and highly ordered, with a stark contrast between the cool interior shade and the sunlit green courtyard.
- Environmental context
- A private, walled residential courtyard in Maia, Portugal, featuring manicured grass, stepping stones, and young trees.
- Spatial experience
- A compressed, shaded interior threshold opens up to a bright, walled courtyard garden, dissolving the boundary between indoor living space and the landscape through floor-to-ceiling sliding glass.
- Composition rhythm
- A strict horizontal alignment of floor, deck, and ceiling planes, punctuated by the thin vertical lines of the sliding glass door frames.
- Style reading
- Souto de Moura minimalist modernism
- Program
- Private residential living room
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture