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Casa Tóló Lugar das CarvalihinhasPortugal

Alvaro Leite Siza Viera

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Reached via a road on the northern higher part of the site, all a first-time visitor sees on approach is a concrete platform projected forward of the slope, a form as far removed from any sense of domesticity as you can imagine. The only clue to an entrance is an opening sliced out of the deck and stairs leading down. And it is here that Siza’s Piranesian perversity kicks in, for the visitor must first call up the courage to step into the shaft, uncertain of where it may lead. Like descending into a dark netherworld, the visitor must then engage a long run of stairs – more than 30 steps – before arriving at the front door. Later, as the house snakes down the slope, there are only glimpses of stairs. It takes several flights and more than 100 steps to reach the end of the house at the bottom of the slope. The external stairs are echoed inside, so that indoor and outdoor are treated as parallel creations, rather than exclusive realms. The upper entry platform also serves as a car parking space.

“The necessity of partially burying the house came from lack ofeconomic means,” Siza says. “In this way the house itself is a path. Its form organizes a fundamental outdoor route. The exterior stairs that create a link between the patios mirror the interior stairs, which have the same function of linking the internal spaces, which are also set across several levels. It is neither horizontal nor vertical architecture. Its placement on the site results in a slanting architecture,” Siza says.

“The terrain’s instability gave rise to a house with triple function:the home itself and its interior space; the organization of outdoor patios corresponding to the roofs of the various levels which permit outdoor use; and finally, creation of a pedestrian link between the paths of the upper and lower levels that border the site. The choice of exposed concrete creates an idea like that of massive stones appearing naturally…expressiveness is extracted from a continuous structure of reinforced concrete. Besides, the plasticity of insitu concrete and its relationship with nature pleases me.”Most of the reinforced concrete platforms are further clad with one metre square concrete pavers for added weather protection and thermal insulation. Others are grassed over or filled with small stones. Once inside, however, the house is arranged more or less conventionally, beginning with an office just past the entrance, then dropping down to a partially embedded kitchen/living/dining zone; three bedrooms, stepped along one above the other; a laundry and plant room; and finally, the swimming pool with a narrow spillway splashing water into a small pond.Light plays a major part in Siza’s game with stairs. The bedrooms, three individual cubes each turned 45 degrees to the main stair axis, draw their light from large windows oriented to views. Light into the living room is drawn indirectly via a high-set transom, its source from above not readily visible from within.The interiors are sparsely furnished and adopt a simple stripped-back palette –stained timber floors and doors, white walls – that not only enhances the sense of space but also fills the house with almost monastic austerity. The floor here is concrete, edged by a warm lightly coloured timber floor. Siza also designed the living room furniture. JR

On first encountering this house in the rural Vila Real district of northern Portugal, the impression of stumbling upon the ruin of an ancient civilization must be inescapable.

≥ Cascading down a steep slope in a tumble of concrete steps and terraces the house could also pass for a series of bunkers, angled this way and that to spy on views of the valley below and the mountains in the distance; or maybe the wild realization of one of Dutch artist M C Escher’s impossible constructions.Designed by Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira, son of the legendary Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, the house serves as a weekend retreat for his cousin and family. Faced with a tight budget – just US$150,000 for the 180m² structure, plus US$3,000 for landscaping – and a difficult, long, narrow site on a 33-degree slope, Siza turned his constraints into opportunities, and the result is a striking piece of residential architecture: the house interpreted as a giant stair.Employing simple formed-up and poured insitu concrete construction methods, Siza used the natural fall of the slope, partially embedding sections of the house, like the combined kitchen, living and dining room and the bedrooms, to literally

“walk” the building down the slope, before allowing it to finallysplash down into a swimming pool at the very bottom. Every room spills out onto the concrete roof of the room below, each terrace conceived as an outdoor garden room, each an extension of the space within, on which to sit, enjoy the sun, take in the views and even shower outdoors beside the swimming pool.Siza, who admits that when young he had a fascination with the drawings of Escher and the Italian, Piranesi, says that he wanted to “make games of the stairs, creating ambiguity about what’s going up and what’s going down.” The full extent of the stairs, consequently, internally and externally, is never fully revealed; long sections and fragments may be glimpsed at a time, while some external sections, going up and down, appear to terminate abruptly, seemingly going nowhere.

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Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira

1 Upper entrance 2 Entrance foyer 3 Storage 4 Kitchen 5 Pantry 6 Bathroom 7 Living room 8 Bedroom 9 Bathroom 10 Bedroom 11 Bedroom 12 Lower entrance 13 Exterior patio 14 Plant room 15 Pool

SectionImplantation

Plan

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Project StatementThis project consists of a holiday home with three bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, dining room, small kitchen and small outdoor swimming pool.The terrain is sharply inclined and has a particular configuration: it is very long and narrow. However, the fact that it faces south allows it to receive optimal solar exposure and to enjoy a particular natural view. The total internal area does not exceed 180m².For reasons of functionality and integration, the main entrance is located on the street where car transit is possible. This road leads to the northern higher part of the lot. Nevertheless, it is possible to access the house from a more rustic footpath from the south. Its fragmentation, necessary due to the steep topography, transforms the whole into a composition of small linked and interconnected volumes, creating an unevenness that allows for a more secure and rational use of the lot. In this way, the house’s various functions are clarified with each elevation corresponding to a single compartment. The roof functions simultaneously as pavement support for the gardens: similar to the traditional threshing floors and patios in the northern regions of the country with hilly terrain.With a linear position at the centre of the lot, an attempt to preserve all the pre-existing trees was made, as they maintain a strong presence in the area, as well as to preserve continuity with the immediate surroundings. The resultant form is a rigorous, modular geometric abstraction with necessary rotation of certain modules to adapt to the natural morphology of the terrain, respecting the distance from neighbouring walls, thus appearing to move naturally and with absolute freedom.The terrain’s instability together with modest economic resources gave rise to a house with triple function: the home itself and its interior space; the organization of outdoor patios corresponding to the roofs of various levels which permit the outdoor use; and finally, creation of a pedestrian link between the paths of the upper and lower levels that border the site. In this way, the house itself is a path. Its form organizes a fundamental outdoor route. The exterior stairs that create a link between the patios mirror the interior stairs that have the same function of linking the internal spaces, which are also set across several levels. The exterior stairs correspond to the interior ceilings. It is neither horizontal nor vertical architecture. Its placement on the site results in a slanting architecture.The necessity of partially burying the house comes from lack of economic means, and in this way creates positive thermal behaviour and security. The outdoor patios solidly adapt, establishing a direct link to the garden. The choice of exposed concrete creates an idea like that of massive stones appearing naturally on the site. Expressiveness is extracted from a continuous structure of reinforced concrete, the most efficient on a site of such characteristics, and once again making optimum use of the modest economic resources available.Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira

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Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira22

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Project Casa TólóLocation Lugar das Carvalhinhas, PortugalArchitect Alvaro Leite Siza VieraLandscape Architect Alvaro Leite Siza VieiraEngineer Gabinete de Organizacao e ProjectosBuilding Contractor OscarPhotographers Sergio & Fernando Guerra