Positioned in Fonte Boa, Portugal, this minimalist two-storey home was designed in 2015 by João Mendes Ribeiro.
Description by João Mendes Ribeiro
The Fonte Boa Home is a single household home designed in a rural property in Fartosa, Fonte Boa, within the centre of Portugal. The small property, with a winery and olive grove, is situated within the Rabaçal valley, confined by the Jerumelo, Sicó and Espinhal mountains. This expressive valley’s panorama, which was as soon as occupied by a roman villa (round IV BC), is now primarily characterised by small vegetation and large olive timber.
The home is positioned within the west aspect of the property, protected against the primary highway, profiting from the best solar publicity, the encircling bushes and the views over the valley. The correct place of the home was set in order that there wouldn’t be main adjustments within the terrain, sustaining the present slope and preserving all the present timber.
Reinterpreting the standard single household housing typology, the home is a two storey rectangular quantity with a zinc pitched roof, whose quantity detaches itself from the slope with a concrete basement (occupied by a small wine cellar). From the road, the doorway is made via a gap within the stonewall that limits the south a part of the positioning. The open storage, constructed under the terrain stage, is enclosed by concrete partitions, by the semi-underground concrete field that hosts the laundry room, and by the steps that result in the higher degree the place the home is positioned.
A succession of platforms results in the doorway of the home, which is protected by a windbreak door. Inside, each flooring are organized in three elements, with a core stairs and utility space that, on the bottom flooring, divides the eating from the lounge and, on the primary ground, separates the 2 principal bedrooms. The communication between the 2 flooring is made by a cupboard/staircase that reinforces the longitudinal path of the home. All the inside areas have a specific relationship with the skin, by means of a set of huge openings or small home windows that intensify, in very other ways, the connection that the home establishes with the panorama.
Images by Jose Campos
