Project: 2M House
Architects: Salworks
Location: Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Area: 2,292 sf
Photographs by: Courtesy of Salworks
2M House by Salworks
The M2 House is an incredibly elegant minimalist residence located in Portugal’s Ponta Delgada. It is designed by Salworks along a busy road by the seafront. As it is immediately noticeable from the clean exterior design, privacy was the feature around which everything revolved during the design process. The minimalist look also found its way in the interior of this residence, creating open, interconnected spaces with a minimalist palette.
Located along a busy road and on a second row of buildings aligned on the seafront of the town of Lagoa, in Sao Miguel, Azores, the 2M house is a place where privacy was given the utmost importance in an ambiance totally dedicated to family use. The lot has no special features, with an upward slope along the south-north direction; the longitudinal axis, north-south aligned, provided the basis to extend the initial protection concept to benefit from the favourable solar rotation.
In this way, and building the maximum allowable volume into a perfect parallelepiped shape, the soil removal process begun to allow for the correct fitting of the program. This program is based on a basic house concept with specific settings in order to enhance the spaces in its different uses.
Light is the central theme of the space organization. A semi-public patio serves as a parking lot that may be completely closed, thus creating an initial protection space from the busy road. The elevation drawing only shows the main gateway with no other openings to keep off the street and turning west.
With no other floors to be seen on the elevation, two large empty spaces are projected onto the interspace west of the kitchen area and another onto the interspace of the dining and leisure area covered by the patio. Only two other empty spaces appear to the west, in the area where the two children rooms are located and a special interspace aligned with the axis of the local church and its small front square.
The ground floor, having an open plan and spreading on two levels, opens to the north onto the courtyard and future garden. A strong light from above floods the space on a white double height wall from where a staircase elegantly connects the two floors. This light is a presence that generates more space and daily rhythms for this young family. The upper white coloured floor includes Japanese cedar woodworks to make it warmer and, besides the 3 bedrooms, includes a subdivided toilet facility and laundry area.
The 2M home, full of light, privacy will certainly ensure a positive experience for its users in the future.
