Parque Picoutos Housing
Matosinhos, Portugal
Housing
24.970 m2
2024
Picoutos Ecological Park, in São Mamede de Infesta, plays a central role in preserving local natural heritage. The housing proposal is grounded in this condition and understands landscape as living infrastructure. Housing and environmental performance are developed together, reinforcing the park’s capacity to regulate temperature, manage drainage, and support everyday environmental comfort.
The site occupies a transitional territory between rural and urban fabrics, where the edge condition becomes a key design driver. Building placement and landscape design are conceived as a single operation. Increased vegetation, water-retention basins, and a careful reading of prevailing wind corridors are integrated to mitigate urban heat and improve water management across the site. The use of low-maintenance native species ensures continuity between planted and built ground over time.
This environmental logic extends into the architectural expression. The buildings adopt a restrained language, using light pink concrete and tiles combined with prefabricated modular elements. These choices favour durability and reduced long-term maintenance, aligning construction systems with the operational demands of a park environment.
Within the housing brief, spatial efficiency is treated as a project instrument. Without altering overall volume, gross building area, or urban parameters, the proposal accommodates 211 apartments instead of the requested 204. This increase results from the optimisation of layouts and the reduction of residual space within each unit, expanding capacity through design refinement rather than additional construction.
By aligning landscape strategies with programmatic precision, the project frames housing as part of a broader ecological system. It responds to contemporary housing needs while strengthening the park’s role as shared ground, where environmental performance and domestic life are designed as interdependent conditions.
Status
Complete, Open Competition
Client
IHRU
Design team
Diogo Sousa Rocha
Duarte Ramalho Fontes
Anna Chiara Manunta
Rabia Kucukaltan
Pedro Faustino
Berru Beki
Diogo Barbosa
Imane Mokhtatif
Wladimir Pulupa
Içim Atli
José Girão
Consultants
Tekk Engenheiros Consultores
Mino Works
P4 - Artes e Técnicas da Paisagem
LUCE
