CASA FRANCO
Mezzo Atelier was commissioned to design a new house for a family in a rural property close to the city of Ponta Delgada, in the island of São Miguel, Azores. Strongly affected by its surroundings and vernacular constructions, the house expresses the client wishes: simple, practical and cozy, using local materials and keeping harmony with an existing house in the property.
The design’s main goal was to keep the construction’s character and it’s rural atmosphere, while adapting it’s structure to a completely new typology and contemporary regulations. New openings where carefully shredded in the façades and a new volume was added to the main construction, allowing for a second, smaller house to appear integrated in the whole. The bigger house develops in two levels. The ground floor is opened to the surrounding exterior spaces and reaches out to it’s different heights, creating a semi-level floor where an open social space gives access to the private suites and service area. The upper floor contains the social spaces and it was designed as a free plan so it could be taken advantage of the roof’s structure and it’s height. From the kitchen there’s access to an open terrace situated on top of the smaller ground floor house.
Some new elements we have integrated like the exterior stairs and the chimney, or the use of whitened wood in the interiors are re-interpretations of the traditional architecture in the Azores, witch we wanted to dignify with this project. Keeping it’s original colors, pink and yellow, was also an important issue to maintain it’s integration within the context, as all the buildings in the street, kept in the same family for generations, still have them.
Project: Casa Franco
Typology: Private House
Year: 2015
Location: Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel Island (Azores, Portugal)
Surface: 100 m2
Team: Giacomo Mezzadri, Joana de Oliveira
CASA FRANCO
Mezzo Atelier was commissioned to design a new house for a family in a rural property close to the city of Ponta Delgada, in the island of São Miguel, Azores. Strongly affected by its surroundings and vernacular constructions, the house expresses the client wishes: simple, practical and cozy, using local materials and keeping harmony with an existing house in the property.
The design’s main goal was to keep the construction’s character and it’s rural atmosphere, while adapting it’s structure to a completely new typology and contemporary regulations. New openings where carefully shredded in the façades and a new volume was added to the main construction, allowing for a second, smaller house to appear integrated in the whole. The bigger house develops in two levels. The ground floor is opened to the surrounding exterior spaces and reaches out to it’s different heights, creating a semi-level floor where an open social space gives access to the private suites and service area. The upper floor contains the social spaces and it was designed as a free plan so it could be taken advantage of the roof’s structure and it’s height. From the kitchen there’s access to an open terrace situated on top of the smaller ground floor house.
Some new elements we have integrated like the exterior stairs and the chimney, or the use of whitened wood in the interiors are re-interpretations of the traditional architecture in the Azores, witch we wanted to dignify with this project. Keeping it’s original colors, pink and yellow, was also an important issue to maintain it’s integration within the context, as all the buildings in the street, kept in the same family for generations, still have them.
Project: Casa Franco
Typology: Private House
Year: 2015
Location: Ponta Delgada, S. Miguel Island (Azores, Portugal)
Surface: 100 m2
Team: Giacomo Mezzadri, Joana de Oliveira
