House II in a Quinta de Recreio
This building belongs to an agricultural estate of the typology of quintas de recreio, long abandoned for decades. The project is the third in a sequence of interventions led by Arquitectura-G, dedicated to conservation, rehabilitation, and the creation of new spatial opportunities. Taken together, these works aspire to restore vitality to the quinta and its vineyards, envisioning a self-sufficient territory of forests, orchards, gardens, livestock, animals, and built structures, all guided by the principles of permaculture.
Originally, the building housed a wine cellar for the storage of casks and bottles, together with the living quarters for the estate’s workers and servants. The existing volume was articulated through a series of segmented parts, divided and interconnected by multiple staircases. Despite a complex and far-reaching transformation, the original mixed program of wine cellar and residence has been retained, here reinterpreted as a single dwelling.
Regulations prohibited alterations to the overall volume and restricted significant changes to the façades and roof. Once the preexisting structure was completely emptied, leaving only the perimeter walls, a new body of blue-pigmented concrete was embedded within. This structure rises from the basement, where the cellar is located, ascends via a helical staircase, and extends to form the floor slabs of the upper levels, culminating on the first floor beneath a skylight that floods the central void with natural light.
This intervention reconfigures the interior space and organizes the overall functioning of the house. The ground floor is conceived as an open-plan area integrating the kitchen, dining room, and main living room, arranged around the staircase. The upper floor houses bedrooms at both ends, while a secondary lounge occupies the area illuminated by the skylight.
