Porto Village

Project idea

The main idea was to create a space that will give shape to everyday life for 40 residents in the atmosphere of the home village. There are visible defragmentation and repetitions strategies to form the plan and the volumes. Main building holding representative, administrative, medical, and recreational functions. Being located in the southwest part of the plot, it is the most solid, massive, mostly 2-storied building with some interior courtyards providing better lighting. There are also two facility centers that are separated from the main body. Independent houses give more privacy and strengthen responsibility for the living space more than rooms in residential blocks. Houses, thanks to their close location of public common courtyards at the same time are not isolated and seem to be linked with the heart of the Porto Village complex – the main square holding many activities. Emphasizing the spirit of the village, every residential unit has a private porch and a little garden on the backside. Furthermore, it was very important to preserve the view on the ocean and houses located on the slope with special distances between each other allow admiring and affirmation of the power of water.

Project description

The main building holds many different functions. There is the reception that is the most representative part of the building facing the public square. From this part, it is possible to get to the administrative offices or to the health centre that offers a huge diversity of options. Residents can get complex help for their bodies and souls. We can find there examination room, rehabilitation and physiotherapy room, podiatry, hairdresser, occupational therapy and psychologist offices as well. The health centre has its own entrance with a lobby that is linked with medical facilities on the upper floor. There are special treatment rooms for people in need with necessary facilities equipment. Not forgetting about recreation and pleasure, residents are able to use a swimming pool and take part in beauty treatments.
There are also some buildings that are intended to be used by all inhabitants and are detached from the main facility building. We can find a yoga and gym centre for those who want to stay in shape even after 60. There is a multi-purpose room that can work as a place to hold some common activities, spend time together and strengthen neighbourhood relations. In the southeast part of the plot, residents might eat dinner with their friends and families and Porto inhabitants can spend time watching the ocean in the restaurant that is opened for everybody. Housing:
Four different typologies of houses were designed and included in the Porto Village Complex. There are dwellings with two separated apartments for singles, dwellings in two sizes with two separated apartments for couples or people using wheelchairs and a dwelling for couples or friends with bigger common space as well. Most typologies have the linear system. They have big openings on opposite sides of the building that provide cross-ventilation and better lighting. The smallest apartment is about 30m2 and in its functional program has shared kitchen with living room and rest place and separated bathroom. Different typologies are based on this concept of creating space. Double apartments have bigger common spaces and separated bedrooms facing private gardens at backside of the house. The houses have pitched roofs that are extended a little from each side in order to give shelter from the rain during entering the building and to protect the interior from overheating as well. The external elevations are composed of red bricks and finished with metal panels.
Open spaces
Porto Village design offers different features of open spaces. It was important to provide residents with outdoor spaces that are covered with greenery and can hold many activities for residential as well as for inhabitants of Porto. We can find the public square that stays in relation to the existing public space in front of the market. This part of the site plan inaccessible to everybody. There is an outdoor gym, a playground for children and a place to rest and eat outside close to the restaurant. All of those are placed in the scenery of nature with trees and water fountains. The main common space for residents is located in the centre of the plot and it is enclosed by the facility building and houses. The greenhouse, the chess field, the places for barbecue and the Pétanque field give residents many opportunities to socialize with each other and develop relations. There are also places where they can grow their own vegetables, herbs and fruits feeling connected with nature. They might rest in the shadows of trees looking at flower planks integrated with bodies of water. There are also small outdoor spaces surrounded by residential buildings. They are semi-private spaces that are covered with vegetation and include street furniture such as benches. Creating this type of open space help to improve houses ventilation and insulation systems. All those different places can join the community.

Technical information

The construction system is based on loadbearing brick walls. They are composed of two-layer of bricks that are separated by a thermal insulation layer and air space. Houses have walls of 37cm thickness. In the facility building, where the bigger loads occur, the thickness was increased to 50cm. The facility building is constructed on load-bearing brick walls (D.1.A). When it comes to floors, there are different types of slabs related to the functional program. Generally, the one-way concrete slab was used to separate different levels supported on brick walls covering the spans from 6 to 7,8m. There is also a two-way waffle slab used in the swimming pool part. In that case, there is a bigger span to cover (12,5m). We did not want to have space divided by pillars and it was important for the design to keep the area with the swimming pool spacious and open. Brick facades
In the Porto Village designed bricks are not used only as a construction material, but also as finishing and covering layers. The material has a very huge potential to make difference in feeling the space. Using different configurations of the small elements and creating different patterns give a countless variety of options to compose the surfaces. Thanks to its geometry and positions, it is possible to receive completely different effects, from solid, massive forms that can be an impassable barrier to the more transparent, light partition. There are mainly three different patterns of bricks in the proposal that cover the elevations.
First, the repetitive rhythm of bricks was used to compose the load-bearing walls that are very often also a part of the exterior skin. Thanks to the repetitive pattern of small units put tight together, one by one only with mortal between, the feeling of strength and monumentality can be experienced.
The second way of placing bricks with spaces between the units gives the impression of the lightness of the material. The wall becomes less heavy and transparent that gives the chance to the interrelation between both sides. This type of pattern has also different functions. It can protect interiors from overheating letting at the same time light gets inside. The shadows can create extraordinary shapes on the surfaces providing a visual game that can be nice to observe.
The third used option is with the solid, ordered placement of bricks with some elements extended. The monumentality and the brutality of the plain wall can be broken by this protrusion movement in the regular pattern. It also provides a diversity of the shadow effects on the surface.