Gold Winner of the Architecture & Design Collection Awards 2022

Madalena House

Architecture
Private Residence Large Architecture Built
Professional Category

Architect / Designer:

Paulo Martins

Studio:

Paulo Martins Arquitectura & Design

Design Team:

Paulo Martins – main architect
Bruno Alvarinhas – architect

Copyright:

Ivo Tavares

Country:

Portugal

Madalena House is located in Vila Nova de Gaia, in the parish of Madalena.

Composed of an overlapping of pure volumes, its arrangement corresponds to the desire of creating a visual barrier between living spaces and the street, allowing maximum privacy to be achieved.
In the initial moment, the upper volume marks and emphasizes the entrance, inviting to go beyond the almost opaque barrier, pierced only by a gap that denounces the depth of the plot and the house, at the same time reinforcing the intention of impermeability.

After overcoming the initial barrier, the house reveals itself, in opposition to the outside, to be a wide and fluid space with a well-defined program, opening the social areas to the outside through large glass spans. With these openings, we wanted to promote and enhance the relationship between the exterior, facing west, and the interior, maintaining the privacy of the master suite through the creation of a patio.

On the upper floor, materialized by a loose and hermetic volume, there are two suites and an office, only open to private patios torn in the volume which, in addition to guaranteeing privacy, allow the glazed spaces to be protected from direct radiation.

Paulo Martins Arquitectura & Design

Paulo Martins Arquitectura assumes itself as a studio focused on experimental and strategic design, provoking and making the sensorial and emotional experiences part of the process and a goal to be achieved.
We project value-added buildings, designed to offer a high level of satisfaction and well-being, enhancing the relationship between dualities (interior / exterior, light / shade, soft / rough…), blurring their boundaries and diluting the barrier that separates them.
We propose a sustainable and hedonistic architecture, free from preconception and stereotypes.

We encourage designers and architects to share their best projects with the rest of the world so as to inspire the next generation and gain global recognition.