EN09 Single Family House & Atelier | Mafra
Single Family House & Atelier
Client: Private
Area:
Team: to be defined
Construction: to be defined
Contractualization: 2024
[Execution]
A couple of artists decide to leave Lisbon. Mafra appears as a refuge – close to the mountains, away from the noise. They find a house. Inhabited by silences, by old gestures, by a history that still endures.
The intervention doesn’t start from a blank sheet of paper. It starts from what existed, from what could be heard: the matter, the limits, the desire. Nothing is erased. The architecture tries not to impose itself.
The house is reorganized and appears in continuity with the new, glazed volume, which fits into the gable of the plot. The new volume houses the studio.
More than designing a house, it’s about remaking life in an existing place. Transforming the usual into the permanent.
The house as a journey
Two floors linked by a gesture
The house is maintained. Not as it was, but as it will respond to everyday life. It is reorganized into two levels – the upper one, dedicated to daily life, shared life and simple routines. A social area where two bedrooms coexist. A floor where the light is measured but all the spaces open up with restraint.
On the ground floor, the old cellar is transformed. It becomes a refuge. The main room of the house, complete, secluded, opening onto the mountains and the outside space.
To unite the two eras of the house, a new gesture: a pure white body draws a circular staircase. We connect the floors as naturally as if we were moving from one moment to the next.
The hidden volume
A studio embedded in the topography
The new volume doesn’t stand out. It exists but is embedded in the topography. It fits into the gable, embedded in the very mass of the land. It’s a place to work – a studio, facing outwards, but removed from everyday life.
The façade is all glass. The structure disappears. Only the light and the mountain landscape enter.
The interior space is continuous, white, raw. Designed to be used as a creative starting point.
It’s a discreet gesture. Almost invisible. A hidden volume, built with the measure of what is needed to paint.
The hidden volume
A studio embedded in the topography
The new volume doesn’t stand out. It exists but is embedded in the topography. It fits into the gable, embedded in the very mass of the land. It’s a place to work – a studio, facing outwards, but removed from everyday life.
The façade is all glass. The structure disappears. Only the light and the mountain landscape enter.
The interior space is continuous, white, raw. Designed to be used as a creative starting point.
It’s a discreet gesture. Almost invisible. A hidden volume, built with the measure of what is needed to paint.
Between volumes, the space that breathes
Living near the mountains
Between the house and the studio, a continuum is formed that gives rise to a carefully constructed void. The two volumes are permanently transformed. The house is extended and a studio is projected.
The swimming pool is part of an old courtyard and serves as a beacon of light. It serves to cross the heat, to mark time, to restore silence.
The exterior is not an accessory, it happens with the same density as the interior. The material is the same, the white is repeated, the floor is extended. Everything connects without interruption. As if the house were breathing through the space between the volumes.
Project Gallery
Unique characteristics that set it apart
The entrance is discreet
It happens between walls, without a mark. A silent, almost imperceptible gesture.
The house is organized by levels
Daily life is above. Rest, below. Everything is naturally connected.
The staircase is an autonomous gesture
White, circular, without leaning. It joins the floors without weighing them down.
The studio fits into the house
Embedded in the gable, it’s another time. A space to stop and look.
The mountains are a constant presence
Through the glass, the outside comes in. The landscape is not seen – it happens.
The pool marks the void
It’s neither center nor periphery. It’s a pause. A mirror of silence between the volumes.
The material is contained
White plaster, natural stone, glass. Everything is repeated, everything is connected.
The outside extends the inside
The ground continues, the shadows cross. The boundary cannot be seen.
Light designs space
Filtered, lateral, indirect. It’s the light that builds.
Architecture dissolves
It doesn’t assert itself. It only allows us to inhabit it.
Process under construction
Construction systems
The work under construction is a decisive moment in the process of materializing a project. It is in this interval between the design and the living space that ideas take shape, details are revealed and architecture becomes matter. Accompanying this phase allows us to understand the rigor and complexity of each decision.
In this section, we share real images of the construction process, revealing the structure, materials and gestures that underpin the architectural intention. Each photograph documents an instant in the process, highlighting the technical precision and coordination between all those involved in the work.
More than a documentary record, this gallery seeks to show the beauty inherent in the construction in progress – the contrasts, rhythms and provisional textures that precede the final result. It’s a way of giving visibility to the invisible work, celebrating the path to the realization of each space.
The visual chronology presented makes it possible to identify the various stages of the construction process, from preparing the ground to defining the final elements. These records help us to understand not only the logical sequence of the work, but also the moments of adaptation and real-time response to site conditions.
By making this intermediate stage visible, the aim is to reinforce the transparency of the process and value the technical know-how involved in execution. Construction is understood here as an integral part of the project, a territory of precise decisions where architecture, engineering and execution meet.
