SG House was completed in 2009 by José António Lopes da Costa and is located in São João Da Madeira, Portugal. It features two primary structures that sit perpendicular to each other, while a third structure was dedicated to the swimming pool. At a glance, the SG House appears to have two floors, but the reality is that its living areas are distributed on a single level for the most part.
The ground floor and first floor are parts of a tall structure, which comprises the living rooms, the study and the kitchen.
The second occupies just the ground level and includes the private living areas as well as a service space. The third structure, which flaunts the swimming pool, acts as a buffer between the outdoors and the indoors. The bedrooms face towards the swimming pool and its patio thus ensuring great outdoors views.
From the architect:
The house consists of two structures, perpendicular to each other, and a third one serving the swimming pool. Due to its volume this house seems to have two floors, but it is, in fact, distributed almost exclusively in one. The structure of the living rooms, with a double height ceiling, which also houses the study and the gallery located on the first floor, grants it another volume dimension.
The volume of the living rooms is marked, to the south, by the horizontalness of the concrete canopies that serve as brise-soleils. The highest structure, composed by ground floor and first floor, is north/south oriented and houses the social area (Living rooms, kitchen and study).
The second structure, perpendicular to the previous one, consists only of the ground floor, and holds all the intimate area of the house, as well as the service area. To the east it opens to a reflecting pool that separates the terrace of the bedrooms from the garden.
There is also a third lower structure (that serves the pool), which appears as a kind of “filter” between the outside and the house, quite closed to the north. With the living area open to the south, the house has a private area to the east, with all the bedrooms facing a small patio and a reflecting pool. The Neighbouring granaries stand out in the south and west facing views.
Location: Rua de Oliveira de Azeméis, 3700 São João da Madeira, Portugal
Architect In Charge: José António Lopes da Costa, Tiago Meireles
Co Workers: Filipe Ribeiro
Year: 2009
Photographs: Manuel Aguiar
Structures: Eng. Ricardo Costa
Water Network And Drainage: Eng. Ricardo Costa
Electrical: Eng. Vítor Almeida
