Heróis de África house, a lot within the old and classified district of Leça da Palmeira, a seaside town close to Porto, was the subject of this project.

Built in the 1930´s, its sober architectural language translates the constructive and stylistic options of the time as visible in the rectilinear design of the cornice and the stone masonry elements by the cast iron gate with its decorative geometry. Looking to design a home for the Sizaret family of four, this project strived not only for the restoration but also for an extension of the preexisting building as a way of achieving an area more suitable to the whole diversity of activities needed and requested. After research was concluded, that extension materialized in a pentagonal zinc-lined volume resembling the universal archetype of a house extruded from the back facade and widely into the garden. Working as a big living room, the whole area aggregates spaces like kitchen, office or library. We aimed to achieve a wider spatial fluidity, promoting a constant dialogue between openness and privacy, shifting from luminous to more somber and intimate rooms.