One of the most amazing things about architecture is its universality and capacity of being erected with almost every kind of material…From organic sources to industrial production, mankind has often proven in the course of history how to successfully adapt the most unexpected material to construction needs!
Concrete has achieved an important play in modern architecture because of its plastic and sculptural proprieties and this House in Ovar, Portugal, is a great example. In fact, the volume that houses a 680 sq. m. of building area is totally constructed in concrete. And believe me: the final result is simply outstanding thanks to the variety of ingenious solutions accomplished with the use of one simple material.
This mineral plastic house features an indoor swimming pool and a painter’s studio along with the conventional housing program.
The goal was to design the main program as a ground floor, which resulted in variable heights in different geometric forms to differentiate various spaces. The swimming pool, the painter’s studio and the entrance space gained more expressive and elevated forms. Most rooms in the house are located at ground floor level on either side of a long corridor and only a en-suite bedroom is placed upstairs.
Actually, the “plastic” concrete wall often turns into roof pitching upwards in three places to accommodate this first floor and also to give high ceilings to the studio and pool room. White painted surfaces define the interior atmosphere of this grey concrete abode…
Outside, paved terraces and a grassy garden surround the house while a concrete sunshade provides an outdoor shelter with beautiful circular skylights for those who enter this inhabitable concrete sculpture.
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