Paço d'Arcos houses

— DESCRIPTION BY José Martinez Silva —

The Paço D'arcos houses was one of the most difficult project's I've done until now. As one of the houses was for me and the other one for my sister, I was completely lost because I didn't know what to do.
I mean as for the options, or the course or the image for the houses.

The terrain was very complex, it had a big slope and it was very narrow and long. From the materialisation by means of plans, then volumes…I followed all of these paths. I knew I wanted the house to be sustainable and focused on environmental concernes. But I didn't know what would be the image for the house.
I did this sketch, and it's funny now because I was so mad that I was already trying to develop the project over a year and a half, that I wrote on the sketch "two monsters going down the hill". I was so mad about it that I actually wrote it on the sketch.

But then I started looking at the sketch and reflecting about the whole sketchbook and I started thinking, maybe this is fine, maybe this could actually be my house. Basically the sketch I had made was, a few plans with a volume in the middle. And I thought maybe the best is something completely monolithic.

When I got to that sketch I worked on it having in mind those volumes involved in green. And those volumes involved in green, completely lost that stiffness they had right after they were built.The idea was two pure volumes that emerge from the green.

Detailing was taken... to an extreme. I must have spent some eight months studying plants and understanding how to develop the landscaping for both houses. To understand if the plants should be in the shadow or in the sun, what kind of leafs in order to position them in strategic places, which were the vertical elements.

Now what else can I say?
That I'm very happy with the outcome. Now, the house with all that green around it has a completely different image.