Apartment Building in Paranhos - Efficient architecture for living with comfort, rationality, and lasting value
- Residential
- R. Henrique de Sousa Reis, Porto, 2018
- com Alexandra Morais, Marcelo Oliveira
- Photography: JMF
The Multi-family Housing Building in Areosa, in Paranhos, is an architectural project that embodies the vision of our practice: designing efficient, unique, and distinctive buildings that respond to specific commissions with rational, clear, and sustainable solutions.
It is a multi-family building with 39 apartments spread over four floors, supported by a commercially operated parking lot, designed with complete functional and constructive autonomy in relation to residential use.
The land and the layout
The land, with irregular geometry and topography, has different levels at its ends — one part below and another above street level.
The area designated for residential construction is partially shaded by the volume of an adjacent industrial building and by the tall neighboring residential buildings, imposing complex lighting conditions that guided the project development.
The building's layout results, therefore, from a thorough analysis of solar incidence and the surrounding context, and consists of optimizing natural lighting and the views from the interiors of the residential units.
The volumetric and functional distribution ensures maximum solar exposure for the residences and a relationship adjusted to the surrounding urban landscape.
The project
The building was designed to ensure total independence between residential and commercial uses, both in access and in flows.
The parking lot occupies the entire ground floor and has its own vehicle and pedestrian entrances, without interfering with the residential areas.
On the upper floors, the 39 apartments — of T1 and T2 typologies — are predominantly organized with east-west orientation, in direct response to the shadow cast by the buildings to the south.
This orientation ensures the units balanced natural light throughout the day, thermal comfort, and qualified views.
The facades were carefully studied according to their specific conditions:
To the east, the composition and rhythm of the openings reflect the pursuit of sunlight and visual protection from the adjacent industrial pavilion.
To the west, free and open, it is marked by large balconies that extend the living space and create a fluid relationship between the interior and exterior.
Each apartment was designed with attention to detail and efficiency, valuing light entry, acoustic comfort, and space privacy.
The result is a residential building that is robust, functional, and energetically rational, suitable for the contemporary demands of urban living.
Efficiency, comfort, and value
The Residential Building in Areosa represents our commitment to precise and responsible architecture, where every decision — from the layout to the materiality — results from a disciplined and well-founded process.
The project demonstrates how efficient architecture can generate value simultaneously for the developer, the users, and the urban fabric, contributing to a more balanced, sustainable, and livable city.
The land and the layout
The land, with irregular geometry and topography, has different levels at its ends — one part below and another above street level.
The area designated for residential construction is partially shaded by the volume of an adjacent industrial building and by the tall neighboring residential buildings, imposing complex lighting conditions that guided the project development.
The building's layout results, therefore, from a thorough analysis of solar incidence and the surrounding context, and consists of optimizing natural lighting and the views from the interiors of the residential units.
The volumetric and functional distribution ensures maximum solar exposure for the residences and a relationship adjusted to the surrounding urban landscape.
The project
The building was designed to ensure total independence between residential and commercial uses, both in access and in flows.
The parking lot occupies the entire ground floor and has its own vehicle and pedestrian entrances, without interfering with the residential areas.
On the upper floors, the 39 apartments — of T1 and T2 typologies — are predominantly organized with east-west orientation, in direct response to the shadow cast by the buildings to the south.
This orientation ensures the units balanced natural light throughout the day, thermal comfort, and qualified views.
The facades were carefully studied according to their specific conditions:
To the east, the composition and rhythm of the openings reflect the pursuit of sunlight and visual protection from the adjacent industrial pavilion.
To the west, free and open, it is marked by large balconies that extend the living space and create a fluid relationship between the interior and exterior.
Each apartment was designed with attention to detail and efficiency, valuing light entry, acoustic comfort, and space privacy.
The result is a residential building that is robust, functional, and energetically rational, suitable for the contemporary demands of urban living.
Efficiency, comfort, and value
The Residential Building in Areosa represents our commitment to precise and responsible architecture, where every decision — from the layout to the materiality — results from a disciplined and well-founded process.
The project demonstrates how efficient architecture can generate value simultaneously for the developer, the users, and the urban fabric, contributing to a more balanced, sustainable, and livable city.