murmuro's doze casas project is part of an urban transformation development in braga

murmuro’s ‘doze casas’ project is located in gualtar, a peripheral area of the city of braga, north of portugal, that is under a process of transformation of a rural to a peri-urban context, with no relevant urban references. at first, the developer intended at building nine individual houses of considerable large dimensions. however, the 2008 real state crisis raised some apprehension about the success of the investment and the young architecture office was called in to rethink the plan and come up with a new strategy.

murmuro’s ‘doze casas’ project is located in gualtar, a peripheral area of the city of braga, north of portugal

from these circumstances, portuguese based office murmuro has envisioned the transformation of the nine large dwellings into twelve smaller scale houses, more affordable and, therefore, accessible to younger clients. that decision implied radical design changes — the architects had to bury the parking floor and create a single car access in the below level connecting all the individual garages. on one side of the plot, one finds the access ramp, on the opposite side, a vertical access core to fulfill the required legal safety legislation, solving both the emergency exit and the universal access to the building. this solution allowed the design team to free up the ground level and therefore make the best use of the space as usable area for each house.

murmuro has envisioned the transformation of the nine large dwellings into twelve smaller scale houses

parallel walls run across the length of the plot dividing and defining each house as well as supporting the upper floor single monolithic volume. facing the street, another wall of the same height, continuously, punctured by the individual entrances, defines a private courtyard for each house that together with the south garden, makes them completely open to the outside at the ground floor level. the first floor encloses the more private areas of the house, three bedrooms — as required by the developer, and another courtyard that allows the southern and western light to flow throughout the open stairway acting also as a ventilation system during summertime. this outer space is essential for the optimization of the climatic behavior of the house.

the first floor encloses the more private areas of the house

at the ground floor, one finds the social program of the house — the entrance, kitchen, dining area, living room, and access to the lower floor with a two-car individual garage and laundry space. both kitchen and living room, located at opposite sides of the house, open up completely to the exterior — at the northern side, the kitchen opens to the entrance patio and at the southern side, the living room extends to the garden that widens up the view and frames the farming fields and hillside, the most interesting sight from the plot.

the ‘doze casas’ project has been selected in 2016 for the PRÉMIS FAD awards