House on Rua da Natária

House for a Pianist

This house was built for a pianist who wished to have her grand piano and an old harpsichord on the ground floor, in contact with the rear patio and garden. Thus, on this floor, an exposed concrete central staircase divided the entrance of people and cars from the Music Room, which is illuminated by a long window. On the first floor, the staircase transformed into a lighter and more transparent metal structure, articulating the kitchen (facing the street) with the living room (facing the rear patio). On the top floor, the same staircase culminated in a long landing connecting the rooms on both fronts.

This typological frugality corresponded to a simplicity of architectural choices: exposed concrete ceilings; plastered walls; floors, frames, and kitchen furniture in wood; occasional use of marble in the bathrooms. The more sophisticated details were applied to the key elements: the metal staircase, the central skylight, and above all, the front and rear facades. These were erected in exposed concrete, with their texture generated by a previously crafted draped wooden mold.

Viewed from the street, this house lives among the eclecticism of the neighbouring buildings, contrasting with their shapes and colours, not by its exuberance, but by its narrowness, verticality, and simplicity.

This project seeks to dialogue with a long architectural tradition of Porto, reinventing its most typical plot—narrow and deep—adapted here and now to new ways of life.