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Fonte da Luz House

This is a project by Barbosa & Guimarães Architects and it is located at Foz do Douro, Porto, Portugal. Project's program: Rehabilitation of building with house, office and store. There are twenty six images for Fonte da Luz House.

: © José Marques

Project details

Project name: Fonte da Luz House
Location: Foz do Douro, Porto, Portugal
Program: Rehabilitation of building with house, office and store
Year: Project: 2004-2009 • Construction: 2009-2011
Client: Cosmaral Construção e Engenharia Civil
Project by: Barbosa & Guimarães Architects
Team: Principal Designers: José António Barbosa, Pedro Lopes Guimarães • Collaborators: Miguel Pimenta, Paula Fonseca, José Marques, Henrique Dias, Filipe Secca, Mafalda Santiago
Others: Structures and Stability: Época (António Martins) • Construction Company: Cosmaral Construção e Engenharia Civil • Project Director: João Fonseca

Project images

Designer's statement

On a street corner on the Foz do Douro in Oporto, where once existed a square and a fountain, new higher roads were built, "sinking" the preexisting buildings. Some of the buildings, unfortunately, were replaced, others with some difficulties resisted.

In this patch of street corner, only the robustness of the exterior masonry of granite weathered over the years, which like a skeleton waiting patiently for a new "body".

The project involves the rehabilitation of the preexisting granite masonry, introducing in its edge, a prism fully coated copper, and with a volume identical to what we thought was preexistent.

This new approach, organizes three units: a commercial space, an office and housing. This new "body", frees a park space, which enables the access to housing.

The housing is developed on three floors around the volume of the ladder, whose transparency guarantees the fluidity between the various functional areas of the program.