RESIDENTIAL

20 COURTYARD HOUSES

Arelho . 2014

Year
2014
Location
Arelho, Óbidos, Portugal
Team
Jorge Sousa Santos, Francisco Ferreira, Vyernu Patel
Client
Telmo Faria

Gallery

About the project

The twenty courtyard houses are conceived as a single built body, structured in opposition to the original urban design. The unity of the intervention is ensured by the green roofs, which operate as a continuous element and establish a collective reading of the ensemble.

Each house is organised around a courtyard with a swimming pool, in a deliberate gesture of introversion that relocates domestic life to the interior of the plot, rejecting an indifferent exposure to the surrounding context.

The internal organisation is structured by a longitudinal corridor that separates the habitable areas — bedrooms and living room — from the support spaces. These latter — kitchen, bathrooms and storage — are naturally lit and ventilated through small courtyards carved into the body of the building.