Stroke 14 - Rehabilitation (1) House of the Well

Also in the presentation of rehabilitation projects is very practical to use SketchUp, rapidly obtaining images that allow easy perception of the proposal.

In this case, the image taken is a mix of textured or colored design for the property, and monochrome design contours to the environment.

Although he considers only simple volumes, the environment was modeled from the aerial photo and in place photos to allow a more accurate approximation of reality.

The House of the Well (Casa do Poço)

The original building consists of two isolated spaces, the "fire" and the "shop", to which were added elements over time, maintaining the physical separation of housing and storage of supplies. The few interior rooms are small alcoves formed by thin wooden walls in very poor condition.

The intervention keeps all walls and opens a gap that connects the two original areas and unifies the house. The entire interior is removed, while maintaining the location of the ladder and high fireplace.

The program is developed around the ground floor, and is created a single division that delimits a small single room.

Above, it’s a multipurpose space for office and guest room. The space of the lower zone area is eliminated, by opening a small lookout to the surrounding landscape.

The toilet attachment is completely refurbished, and is added a small glass area that connects the toilet to the house and creates a small greenhouse for the winter.

Small pointing

The abandonment of Portugal inland has led to the disappearance of much of our popular heritage, including traditional architecture.

In the case of rural households, when they are not abandoned, many were recovered with wrong methods and materials (as is the example of the indiscriminate use of cement mortar in masonry walls of dry stone), which, besides destroying the integrity of the materials original, destroys the identity of places.

Respect for the original construction and the places are essential in this type of intervention, as evidenced by some good examples like the network "Aldeias de Xisto" (Schist Villages).

Basically they make the difference by staying the same, there cannot be simpler…