Rehabilitation of House in Barbeita
- Renovation & Repurpose, House
- Barbeita, Monção, 2024
The House Rehabilitation in Barbeita transforms a small ruined building, located in a protected area surrounding the Ponte de Mouro, into a bright, efficient, and landscape-integrated dwelling.
The intervention starts with a careful reading of the existing structure—a two-story rural building with vernacular character—to create a new livable space that reconciles memory and contemporary comfort.
The house and the place
The original building, facing two streets at different levels, had an irregular and almost blind configuration, with only one window to the south and facades marked by the absence of sunlight and ventilation.
Working on this volume — conditioned by strict heritage preservation rules — required acting with restraint and precision, finding solutions that respected the local image but met current living demands.
Light, courtyard, and living
The "touchstone" of the project is the creation of an open courtyard, the new heart of the house.
It introduces direct light into the living and dining areas, ensures cross ventilation, and adds a private outdoor space that the original construction never had.
The courtyard is simultaneously an entry filter, a functional extension, and a place to stay, offering continuity between the interior and exterior.
Organization and material
The house is distributed over three levels:
On the ground floor, two independent bedrooms — the “satellites” — have direct access from the outside, designed for occasional and autonomous use.
On the upper floor, the social space is connected to the kitchen and dining area, illuminated by the courtyard, and provides access to the main bedroom, integrated into a mansard specifically created, with abundant sunlight and views of the surroundings.
The original masonry walls are fully preserved and restored.
The new walls, in plaster and corrugated metal sheeting, are distinguished by their lightness and contrast with the originals, emphasizing the coexistence between the old and the new.
The lacquered wood window frames and the traditional roof with ridge and pan tiles, reconfigured to integrate the new volume of the mansard, ensure visual continuity and coherence with the neighborhood.
Synthesis
Beyond rebuilding, the project restores livability to a ruin, and urbanity to the place.
The house in Barbeita is an architecture of precision and attention, that recovers the spirit of the place through light, material, and time.
A discreet house, that inhabits the landscape without imposing itself, returning life and permanence to it.