House 109 by Frari Project in Vagos, Portugal

Project: House 109
Architects: Frari
Location: Vagos, Portugal
Area: 7,534 sq ft
Year: 2022
Photos by: Ivo Tavares Studio

House 109 by Frari Project

This house confronts one of the city's most important highways – National Road EN109.

As it is designed for residential use, the architectural element materializes into a single body that, thanks to its form and positioning, protects itself from the noisy road.

The main facade side of the house is perpendicular to the direction of the road, unlike the existing reality. Thus, the front facade becomes blind, with a green transitional zone created between it and the road that protects the house from ecological and noise pollution caused by this highway while also ensuring necessary privacy.

Entrance is discreetly located on the northern side and emphasized by a magnificent view to the south due to large windows oriented from east to west, encompassing the southern wall of the building that is perpendicular to the street. This way, the horizontal architectural element provides a side outdoor space following the main facade side. The area offers sufficient width to meet requirements and serves as a green relaxation zone.

All rooms face this important outdoor space, ignoring all other possible zones that never provide such a large amount of natural light.

The curved form of the building provides sufficient wind protection on the terrace and increases the depth of the outdoor space along the axis of the house.

All rooms open to the outside space via a terrace on the first floor or a shared balcony area on the upper floor – elements that ensure a uniform facade and allow the volume to extend beyond its limits while maintaining consistency.

This horizontal facade, as intended in the plan, allows the upper part of the house to rise and stand out thanks to the setback lower edges formed by walls made from Corten material, which together with large windows stand out against the obligatory white upper body of the building, in a game of structural balance and materiality that illuminates the massive volume.

The simple yet robust structure is meant to position itself as a critical response to interventions on land adjacent to national roads, solving the problem of unusable outdoor spaces and establishing a missing rule that will allow these roads to have decent livability.

-Project description and images provided by Ivo Tavares Studio

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