Page 113 - AIT0723_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Tsou Arquitectos, PT-Porto
Bauherr • Client Tiago Tsou, PT-Porto
Standort • Location Rua Cunha Júnior 24, PT-Porto
Nutzfläche • Floor space 230 m 2
Fotos • Photos Ivo Tavares
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 158

CASA VERTICAL

IN PORTO

Porto is beautiful. Very beautiful, actually. And the
housing market there is tight. Very tight, in fact. As
recently as in April of this year, there were demons-
trations for affordable housing. For those who see
Porto not only as inspiring but also as their home, the
housing shortage is increasing. Also scarce is inner-city
land and artful the sky-scraping “Casa Vertical”.

H ow much space does a person need in order to live happily and
adequately? Tsou Arquitectos have cleverly turned necessity into a
virtue and designed a light-filled living cosmos on the existing difficult
wedge-shaped, very narrow plot with old walls. With their know-how
and courage, the necessary movement into a vertical direction beco-
mes an ingenious spatial concept. The central heart of the house is the
staircase, around which the levels are layered upwards on half-storeys.
Like a tree with strong roots, the space develops skywards, branch by
branch, by means of this stair sculpture. On the outside, the house pre-
Grundriss Erdgeschoss bis Grundriss 2. Obergeschoss • Ground floor plan to Floor plan level +2 sents itself almost as a classic “Porto town house” – with a plinth storey,
a moderate three-storey height, upright window formats and a specially
shaped roof cornice – all in all, a finely detailed yet minimalist faça-
de. The entrance situation of the house is also unobtrusive: from street
level, one enters a studio with a concentrated working atmosphere – cle-
verly connected and lit via a balcony to the living room above. All uses
and levels are seamlessly connected, yet each room has its own aura
and intimacy. A finely tuned material composition of exposed concrete,
cement floors, wood and marble runs harmoniously through all the
rooms. Despite all the spatial and material differentiation, the house
appears as an accomplished entity. If you were a bird and were able to
look at the fifth façade of the “Casa Vertical” in your gentle flight, you
would not suspect that such a living cosmos is hidden under this trian-
gular remaining surface of what is already such a dense urban area. The
demand for housing is not only high in the city of Porto. Other European
cities are also eagerly looking for concepts on how to produce suitable
living space in the city centre without unnecessarily sealing land located
in the surrounding area. Tsou Arquitectos prove that they exist, these
places that urgently need to be discovered and cleverly activated for
inner-city redensification these days. Building on, converting, comple-
menting, adding floors are the hope-giving architectural buzzwords that
can provide a possible answer to the great housing question of our time
Grundriss 3. Obergeschoss bis Grundriss Dachgeschoss • Floor plan level +2 to Attic floor plan affecting practically all of the major cities worldwide.

AIT 7/8.2023 • 113