Terrazza Park

Oporto, Portugal

Housing

6.188 m2

2022

Terrazza is a housing project developed within a residential block in northern Porto, on a site defined by steep topography and the presence of scattered pre-existing structures. Rather than imposing a generic residential model, the project is grounded in the specific conditions of the terrain, using topography as a primary design driver.

The proposal is organised through two buildings positioned along opposing street fronts. Between them, the natural slope is shaped into a constructed valley that structures the project’s collective space. This configuration allows the terrain to be gradually inhabited through a sequence of stepped gardens, private terraces, and shared outdoor areas located at the base of the courtyard.

The architectural language alternates between two complementary conditions. Towards the public streets, the buildings present a compact and clearly defined volume that reinforces the continuity of the urban fabric. Towards the interior of the block, this mass progressively fragments into landscaped platforms and terraces, allowing light, air, and vegetation to enter the centre of the site and establish a more porous relationship between building and landscape.

Housing units are conceived to balance privacy with proximity. Each apartment includes its own outdoor space, creating a direct relationship between domestic interiors and the landscape. These thresholds between built form and open air structure everyday life, allowing residents to occupy space at different degrees of exposure and intimacy while remaining connected to the collective environment.

Material choices are restrained and deliberate, relying on expressive gestures. The project emphasises texture, proportion, and the modulation of light and shadow as tools to anchor the architecture to its setting. In this way, Terrazza frames housing as a spatial system that grows from the site’s physical conditions and supports new forms of inhabitation through continuity, diversity, and shared ground.

Status

Complete, Private

Client

Blue&Nile Investments, Lda.

Design team

Diogo Sousa Rocha

Duarte Ramalho Fontes

José Queirós

Maria Raquel Dourado

Francisco Pereira

João Prisco

Nuno Gameiro

Giovanni Gibertini

Inês Pinto

Francisca Guimarães Barbosa

Consultants

Fusão

ASL

Ergicon

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