Before & After: a three generation countryside home

An old house renovation is always an attractive challenge, especially when it has been in the same family for three generations. We believe this type of intervention needs someone with sensibility enough to understand that memories and feelings are strongly attached to this house. And they should have an important role in identifying the existing spatial and material qualities that have value enough to be kept and renewed.
To bond past and present, the internal layout of the house was adjusted to the modern standards of comfort and sustainability, renovating, whenever possible, the existing architectural materials and elements. Operating changes only when necessary, affirming the constant dialogue between these two realities.
This home is in a rural context of a northern Portuguese village. Its clear separation between the ground floor, identified as the store (place for the animals and food supplies), and the upper floor, the space to inhabit, reflects its rural typology. The ground floor, the store, was once destined to store the crops and salt. However, since working in agriculture is less common, the store was not needed anymore and was neglected. The upper floor continued to have the function of housing, where the logic of compartmentalization of the space was dominant, resulting in the sprawl of corridors and interior divisions, without any direct natural lighting.
Our intervention begins with analyzing the upper floor, hierarchizing the spaces, giving them a sequence that fits the family routines, and withdrawing compartments to create more generous areas for family life. A new ladder was introduced to connect both levels of this home, allowing the lower floor to be part of the routine of inhabiting, with a program intended essentially for leisure. Regarding interior materiality, the house has two identities as a result of its characteristics and history, which we decided to maintain and explore.
In the exterior, the changes were minimal resulting in the replacement of window frames and the harmonization of colors in the facades. The outdoor spaces were rearranged to allow its use as a space of delight and, in the backyard was added a small building extension for outside family meals and a barbecue.
With this project, we learned that sometimes we could only act in a surgical way to respect its story and the memory of those who grew up and grew old in this home.