© Arménio Teixeira
- Architects: Luís Peixoto
- Location: Paredes de Coura, Portugal
- Engineering: Eng. José Luis Clara
- Construction: Construções José Clara
- Area: 1291.6 ft2
- Project Year: 2017
- Photographs: Arménio Teixeira
© Arménio Teixeira
Text description provided by the architects. The Coura project starts from the need for rehabilitation of a country house with two centuries of history, abandoned by the heirs who built new houses in the surroundings. This small scale construction, now purchased to become a holiday home, featured two floors and an original functional program consisting of an animal shelter (lower floor) and a dwelling (upper floor).
© Arménio Teixeira
Section 05
© Arménio Teixeira
The strategy of the project is based on the idea of reuse, giving continuity to the history of the house by the functional adaptation and adjustment to contemporary domestic comfort. The intervention then seeks to preserve the architectural language of the existing building, mainly using old construction techniques of stone and wood, typical of the region.
© Arménio Teixeira
The signs of modernity arise punctually and naturally due to the inevitable functional spaces alteration. However, the project does not pursue to omit but rather to highlight these gestures as temporal sequence of the object. The stairs – new element – consists of the maximum exponent of this intention, both for the sculptural and material quality as for the contrast of the metal with the density of the adjacent stone walls.
© Arménio Teixeira
The project also preserves the volumes of the building and the exterior language marked by the texture of the stone – surgically intervened – and replacement of the original wooden frames with a color that fits the local history.
© Arménio Teixeira