Casa JV

Casa JV is a project of rehabilitation and expansion of a single-family house with typical characteristics of the vernacular architecture of Olhão, inserted in the urban center of the city. The existing one floor of the house is inserted in a street with adjoining houses of the same typology. It is characterized by the vaults that define the interior spaces and its original façade, with two spans. The housing program was divided into the existing floor, which holds the housing's social spaces, and the new proposed 2nd floor, with private spaces, leaving room for circulation spaces up to the roof terrace, a characteristic element of the city. The rigid lines of the project seek to insert the building into the Cubist architecture present throughout the surroundings. Thus, an attempt was made to maximize the interior space in this small lot, with the opening of all the dividing walls to provide the lower floor with a social area highly characterized by the existing arches and vaults that formalize the living spaces and kitchen of the housing. Taking advantage of the few sources of natural lighting, the secondary service areas and access stairs to the different floors were moved to the back area of the building. The house's differentiating element is a proposed skylight, roughly in the middle of the floor, which crosses the various levels of the volume, highlighting a light tunnel between the brick vaults that transports lighting to the lower floor. The roof terrace is made up of pieces that seek to provide the house with an outdoor living area, with pergolas, an outdoor kitchen and a tank that complements the space.