ground floor house serralves

A commercial space, vacant since it was originally built in 1996, became a ground floor house, activating the relatively secluded street and restituting the permeability in the backyard, with a new garden. All this in close vicinity to one of Porto's cultural landmarks - Serralves park and Museum

Ground Floor Plan

As found

Porto, 2021

As found

The design strategy proposes a generous house, integrating living and working spaces, featuring flexible internal partitions for future adaptability

This project demanded a thorough reflection upon specific themes of interior design: mediating between the public and private realm, designing and organizing the internal domestic space; considering natural and artificial lighting needs in exceptionally deep plots

The project rethinks the use of the backyard, from logistic area to effective expansions of the inside realm – an “outside room”, open towards the sky.

Following the completion of the ground floor house, and the broader research, reground porto, oitoo was commissioned with yet another opportunity to reuse and repurpose an unused ground floor space.

We found a commercial space which has stayed vacant since it was originally built in 1996. After a quarter of a century it became abundantly evident that other uses should be considered. As it is often the case in similar contexts, these spaces present unique features that allow them to become generous, domestic spaces featuring relatively large areas, open spatial layouts, high ceilings, and a backyard asking to become something else.

oitoo adapted this ground floor to a residential function, activating the relatively secluded street and restituting the permeability in the backyard, with a new garden. All this in close vicinity to one of Porto's cultural landmarks - Serralves park and Museum.

This project demanded a thorough reflection upon specific themes of interior design: mediating between the public and private realm, designing and organizing the internal domestic space; considering natural and artificial lighting needs in exceptionally deep plots; considering finishes and materiality; considering the opportunities that high ceilings present to define an internal “topography”; rethinking the use of the backyards, from logistic areas to effective expansions of the inside realm – an “outside room”, open towards the sky.