Portuguese architectural firms Andreia Garcia Architectural Affairs and Diogo Aguiar Studio have hidden a bathroom, bed, and kitchen within the walls of this timber-clad holiday home in Guimarães, Portugal.
“Placed on top of a pre-existing granite wine cellar, Pavilion House takes advantage of its programmatic (in)definition to work on an open and abstract space, simultaneously interior and exterior, which benefits from its proximity to a diverse nature,” says Diogo Aguiar Studio.
Configuring itself as a small habitable space on the mountain, Pavilion House seeks to maximize its versatility and spatial simultaneity. A four-volume wall-set defines the living space and determines the views on the surrounding landscape while concealing the basilar ‘program’ – sleeping, staying, eating and bathing – allowing this to be partially activated, depending on the user wishes.
The holiday home’s main living room doubles up as a sleeping area with a fold-out bed. A kitchen, which can be concealed behind bi-fold doors, and storage is also incorporated into the room’s walls. A small bathroom, which is topped with a skylight, is also hidden away within the walls.
Seeking the integration into the landscape and, on the other hand, an introspective comfort, the exterior and interior facade of these volumes is assumed abstract and textured, defined by a continuous slat of vertical wooden rulers. Framing and compressing these volumes, the ceiling and floor stand in a dark palette that defines both as an absent matter, while helping to rescue the exterior landscape, emphasizing its mutant presence in the inner space.
