House with Four Houses by PROD Architects in Penafiel, Portugal

Portuguese architecture studio PROD has designed this unusual house by placing together a cluster of gabled-roof volumes and covering the space between them with a glass roof.

This ‘House with Four Houses’ as it is called, is situated in the north of Portugal and is designed as the holiday home of a family of four encompassing the residence which spans three storeys: a basement that contains the garage, wine cellar and laundry room, the ground level where all the living spaces are, and a small, secluded office space tucked away in the mezzanine.

The idea of the four detached volumes came after the client specifically asked for the house’s interior to be directly connected with its natural surroundings. The result: a cross-shaped void in between the four volumes that is essentially used only as transient space connecting the different areas which with its glass walls and ceiling, bestows a sense of walking out in nature whenever a member of the family moves from one room to the other. Materials used in the project are understated and yet convey a contemporary feel, seen in the local granite for the floors, patinated pine boards on the walls and zinc cladding for the roof.