Beschrijving:  

Plot of land with high quality licensed draft project for 3 suspended houses with exceptional views, in Santo Tirso, North of Portugal.

- Very good access (5 minutes by car to the centre of Santo Tirso, 30 minutes to Porto, a few hundred meters to local shops and services).
- Very pleasant setting, on the slopes of Monte de São João do Carvalhinho (excellent views to the North, forest space to the South).
- Area already urbanized and inhabited for many years, with public water, sanitation and electricity infrastructures.

Car parking at street level, built into the land, from which a shared way is reached by elevator or stairs up to the level of the dwellings.
One building with two semi-detached houses, each with an area of 181.5 m2 on the single floor of livable space.
Another identical building with a house measuring 363 m2 on a single floor of livable space.
Implantation area 849.50 m2, total construction area 866 m2, construction volume 4,462 m3, plot area 9,886.25 m2.

Following principles of rationality and sobriety, we aim to obtain housing of great architectural and technical quality, while being very optimized for cost control, both in terms of construction and, mainly, of subsequent maintenance. The objective was not to maximize the construction area that would theoretically be possible in regulatory terms, but, on the contrary, to let the buildings ?breathe?, well integrated into the urban and social context. The design was required to have flexible internal organization, including spaces for domestic/remote work, for example for self-employed workers (engineers, doctors, lawyers, ...) who want to have their workplace attached to their residence. The homes should also be prepared for the simultaneous presence of several generations, from children to the elderly (with formal or informal caregivers), in autonomous areas adapted to the desired degree of communal life.

Avoiding buried floors in the livable space, which is planned as a single floor placed 10 meters high relative to the street level, the land is kept practically intact. This floor is placed on top of a small volume intended to support the building and contain the vertical access way from the external path over the land. Since the slope is oriented towards North, the homes may have big windows open to the landscape, with uniform lighting through the day and easy thermal control, still keeping the privacy and security of the residents. Unlike the car parking area at street level, where conventional concrete construction is planned, the buildings located at the upper level may use metal or wood construction techniques.