Year: 2019
Size: 93 square meters
City: Arouca
Country: Portugal
Architects: Anna de Bastos, Felipe Xavier Oliveira
Alucard's home is an example of the theory into practice, the art of knowing how to think about its zeitgeist, drawing potential from existing constraints, and building in an orderly manner. The deep structure of architecture is understood as a pattern language (Christopher Alexander, 1977) related to architectural knowledge, with a speculative meaning, proving its complexity: knowledge is (space): technical knowledge: knowing how to think (thinking): finally, communicative knowledge (time).
Alucard's House concept as a "all eyes" (semiotics) is understood in relation to its layout as the "eye that fell from the sky". It observes the south-facing landscape while moving north in a continuous gesture. The house is developed along the half-moon arch and is understood as the "upper eyelid", and the semicircular swimming pool represents the "iris".
Alucard House, whose clients belong to the construction industry, is a tribute to the "Lady liberty", architects and engineers, as real builders, for real people, an ode to who can achieve control over the landscape. By being elevated to the streets, it allows for views of valleys and mountains, taking advantage of the natural terrain (genius Locci) to find the characteristics of man-nature relationship and life in the countryside.
In terms of space, Alucard's house has a dual structural origin: the three-dimensional atomic structure. Structures always have a dual function: technology and space. It utilizes the anti-arch wall of the circulating zone, combining the function and spatial subdivision of the mesh skeleton logic.
Eccentric volume, corresponding to the service face in the form of "eyelashes", arranged in functional order: garage - laundromat.
Social and private spaces develop in a logical, functional and modular order, from the most common (living room, kitchen and office) to the most intimate (bedroom and final suite), forming the "upper eyelid" of the eye.
This spatial organization coincides with the structural indicator of the length of the house that uses the corridor as a large arc: a "gallery of memories" (paintings, photographs, etc.) – the "retina" of the eye. Orthogonal walls allow for a reasonable and organized distribution of furniture. The living room is the "molded image" of the interior of the house: a huge and dynamic space, composed of na external galleries, protecting it from the sun. The shaft-mounted semicircular swimming pool is similar to the iris in the overall layout.
The client's demand for a contemporary house that is different from others is an opportunity for symbolic and emotional architecture that is characterized by the continuity of values characterized by Portuguese northern architecture (critical regionalism). The critical spirit, reflective and synthesized about the product of the spirit of time, is added, using icon theology to find the universality of the theme - "Omnisight".
Architecture as a true art, premised on the concerted efforts of architects and engineers, each working within a field of knowledge, means knowing how to accomplish space, technology and communication simultaneously.