#RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS
BE HOUSE BY SPACEWORKERS
A multi-layer home in northern Portugal that plays with transparency
BE House is an architectural layer cake. Designed by Portuguese architecture firm spaceworkers, the residence in Paredes, Portugal, is divided over three floors with each “layer” fulfilling a specific function.
The opaque base layer of black stone block incorporates the service areas of the residence as well as a partially covered swimming pool. The second layer of the home contains the living area and explores the relationship with the landscape through the transparency of floor-to-ceiling windows. The final layer, a floating concrete block that, conserves the necessary privacy of the sleeping area.
A study in gravity, the architects give the residence a certain lightness by playing with the materials. The central level’s glass walls create a transparency that makes it seem as if the third storey is actually levitating.
At the same time, BE house seems impossible, improbable. It feels as if the top should bring the whole building tumbling down. But, as with any good layer cake, there is an indelible structure holding the pieces together.
