Gólgota House in Oporto / Floret Arquitectura

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Completed in 2019 by Portuguese architecture firm Floret Arquitectura, the Gólgota House in Oporto is an extension of a historically restored structure. The house design is highly influenced by its surroundings, located along roads with rural features including old farm high walls and a dense green patch ahead of the scenic Douro River.

Gólgota House Technical Information

• Architects^1-5: Floret Arquitectura
• Location: Oporto, Portugal
• Topics: Wood, Concrete, Renovation
• Area: 600 m²
• Project Year: 2019
• Photographs: © Ivo Tavares Studio

The primitive house, which was completely in ruins, was recovered using the original historical period’s techniques and conventional architectural language.

– Floret Arquitectura

Gólgota House Photographs

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Text by the Architects

The “Caminhos do Romântico” territory in the city of Porto (Portugal) has unique characteristics, mixing bourgeois houses with popular housing, interspersing gardens full of camel trees and other exotic species, and with backyards but also several examples of industrial archeology. An important part of these routes is made through markedly rural characteristics, with high walls of the old farms and by the fountains and old community washing tanks.

Our intervention is located in one of these routes, more specifically in the route that goes from Golgota to Massarelos, comprising points such as the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, the «Casa da Agustina Bessa-Luís» and other bourgeois houses and workers houses. A dense patch of green surrounds the whole set, and the Douro River, in the background, is an omnipresent element.

The primitive house, which was completely in ruins, was recovered using the original historical period’s techniques and conventional architectural language. The building’s extension was made at a lower level, taking advantage of the terraces, using wood and concrete, clearly demarcating the addition and the original in chronological terms. All the perimeter walls were recovered, and the retaining walls of the terraces and the garden, the existing species were preserved. Others were incorporated according to the specificity of the place.

The choice of wood makes it possible, in some way, to eliminate the weight of the relatively extensive expansion that had to be carried out and to differentiate the contemporary intervention from the 19th-century building.

– Floret Arquitectura

The pool was designed in such a way as not to modify the orography. The overall result has proved to be quite harmonious, with the new elements added being practically invisible to anyone traveling through the «Caminhos do Romântico.» The ground extends over three terraces facing east with a building with four floors destined to the most private area. Given the small size of this building, it was proposed to expand the area by introducing two new elements: a volume to extend the housing area and a swimming pool. The new volume includes areas for more public use, such as the entrance hall, kitchen, living room, and pool support facilities. It appears perpendicularly to the existing building and consists of two floors, extending to the east, following and relating to several levels with the terraces on the ground, thus distributing different uses such as different living areas, paths, etc.

This intervention managed to reconcile a large family’s needs with the conditions resulting from the built heritage’s recovery, respecting the place’s specificity and the Municipal Master Plan itself. The solution found – the coupling of a body made of wood and glass – allows to expand of the living area of the building while preserving the integrity of the pre-existence and without coming into conflict with it while allowing full and effective communication with the garden. The choice of wood makes it possible, in some way, to eliminate the weight of the relatively extensive expansion that had to be carried out and to differentiate the contemporary intervention from the 19th-century building.

Gólgota House Plans

Floor Plan

Section of the House

Gólgota House Image Gallery

About Floret Arquitectura

Floret Arquitectura is a firm that provides consultancy and project services in the scope of rehabilitation and architecture since 2001, having developed until the year 2014 about 60 urban rehabilitation projects, located almost all of them in the city of Porto and surveyed more than 300 buildings in the Historic / Downtown Zone and developed strategic documents for the rehabilitation of several blocks.

Other works from Floret Arquitectura  

1. Collaborators: Adriana Floret (Coord.), José Carlos Dias, Ana Simões, Maria d’Orey, Andrea Correia, Marta Moraes
2. Structural engineering: Ncrep e ASL
3. Light designer: Softlight
4. Landscaping: Neoturf
5. General Contractor: CS – Construtora

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