sec | sete cidades houses | sete cidades | são miguel | açores | portugal  
2008 | 2014 with Eduardo Souto de Moura
This project consists of 27 single-family dwellings (only buided 16 due cosntruction crisis) built under a controlled-price regime, and the basic aim was therefore to optimize its costs effectiveness. The design, based in the vernacular houses of this region of Azores, seeks to enhance the versatility of uses and subsequent potential modifications to the physical features of the spaces. The operation area, which has a gentle eastward slope down to the lake, covers 13.202 sqm, inserted in a transition zone of the Vila das Sete Cidades. The elongated trapezoidal allotment has a street with a line of two-story buildings on its western side, agricultural plots to the north and east, and a forested area with no buildings at all to the south.
Located within the volcanic caldera of Sete Cidades, this residential houses engages directly with the powerful geological and emotional landscape of São Miguel, Azores.
A series of concrete volumes, pigmented black to evoke the appearance of local basalt, are strategically embedded in the terrain to minimize visual impact and affirm the architecture's permanence. 

project
sec | sete cidades houses
client
secretaría regional da habitação dos açores
location
sete cidades, são miguel, açores, portugal
date
2008 | 2014
intervention area
13 200 sqm
architecture
adriano pimenta with eduardo souto de moura
collaborators
ana ferreira, andré campos, carolina salcedo, maria vasconcelos, hugo torres, tiago coelho
engineering coordinator
paulo silva (afa consult)
structural engineer
afa consult
landscape architect
arqt. off
hydraulic engineer
paulo silva (afa consult)
electrical engineer
raul serafim & associados (afa consult)
mechanical engineer
afa consult
acoustic engineer
afa consult
photos
luis ferreira alves & ap archive