Lisboa-based architecture practice Bak Gordon Arquitectos has completed a small addition to an existing 19th century house in Porto, Portugal. 

Named House 2, the 265-square-metre house was conceived as a complementary element that can work as a kind of annex building or garden pavilion. 

The small building is made of a pigmented deactivated exposed concrete, and with oxidized brass frames and features a light-filled winter garden for its users who want to relax and escape to this house.

The house is situated at the far end of the property, it is also a backdrop for the garden. Designed as a communal space, the winter garden offers a generous double-height interior, which ensures the transition between the intimacy of the rooms and the outdoor space.

While all bedrooms are placed on a trapezoidal floor plan, the rooms expand to the outside and guarantee maximum comfort through the carpeted floor, walls covered in tadelakt, and custom-made Venetian terrazzo elements which make up the bathroom spaces.

The studio designed kitchen and library as small spaces that can directly relate to the circulation. They are characterized by their thermally modified wooden cabinets that contrast with the tadelak finished walls and the concrete pavement.

"The volume rests on the ground with a specific geometry, committed to the multiple environments that gravitate around it," said Bak Gordon Arquitectos.

The flat garden includes a platform from where the granitic swimming pool was subtracted.

Inside, the spaces were conceived as flexible as possible, while the architects give pay attention to details and materials to provide thermal comfort in the interior.

Site plan

Plan 00

Plan 01

Section AA

Section BB

Section CC

Elevation

Elevation

Bak Gordon Arquitectos (BGA) was founded in 2002 by Ricardo Bak Gordon. Some of his works were transitioned from Gordon’s previous professional experience, that started long before in 1990, when he finished his education in architecture. 

Bak Gordon Arquitectos previously completed House in Grândola with red-pigmented structure. 

Project facts

Project name: House 2

Architects: Bak Gordon Arquitectos

Location: Porto, Portugal. 

Size: 265m2 

Date: 2021

All images © Francisco Nogueira

All drawings © Bak Gordon Arquitectos

> via Bak Gordon Arquitectos