The house could have two floors to free up as much land as possible and should be very simple for different “constructions” to converge in its assembly. A square plan was then designed, 10×10 m, taking advantage of all the quadrants of the surrounding landscape, whether for its solar orientation, or, for example, for the greater vastness of the woods to disappear from view to the north. This square clung, through a small porch for a car, to the only straight boundary wall of the land and the only one facing a neighbour, to the west, which has the exact North-South orientation. Unlike so many other holiday homes, hostile to the permanent neighborhood, there shall exist a previous acquaintance between neighbours. The square is placed at the same lateral distance from the wall as the neighbour’s house and will only move in the opposite direction, on a North-South axis, creating a large leisure space to the south, while the neighbouring house rests as close to the road as possible, opening up all the space to the north for the optimisation of agricultural production. The soils drained badly and the land would flood several times a year; the foundations should be made in concrete and, in the meantime, the

structural carpenter had to be found and the study of the woods, worthy of a special attention in the project, should be deepened.

The entire ground floor with a solid perimeter was saved for the social space, which should also be exterior: the durable concrete of the foundation was made from the “social cement”, framed by wooden boards of 12 cm. The basis of the necessary foundations rises up to the height of the fence in the exterior. Only one layer of social space could ever take precedence over this one: the truly ephemeral and circumstantial of the overnight spaces, upon the heavy square of the house, made in wood, also in boards of 12 cm. The boards of the foundation are placed horizontally, following the direction of its construction process, concreted from top

In the following excerpt from Herberto Hélder’s latest book continuum, his poundian “punti luminosi” illuminate with particular power a simple architect who designs a house. It is necessary to read, read once more and conclude that one can only wish to perceive by slowl

(…)

I pour living and dead things into the spirit of the work. My life is ecstatic like a torch chamber.
“It was a house – how can I put this? – that was absolute.” I play, I swear.
It was a childhoodhome.

I know how mad this home was.

I would put my hands in the water: I would fall asleep, I would recall.
The mirrors cracked against our youth. I now feel the spin of the brutal,
lyrical wheels of life.

In the total obliviation or remembrance of things
there is a rose, like a high head, and there is a fish, like a fast and severe movement.
A fishrose inside of my foolish idea.
There are drunk glasses and forks inside of me. “Because the love of things in their
future time

is excruciatingly deep, soft, devastating.”
(…)

Hélder, Herberto, “Súmula”, “Ou o Poema Contínuo”, Assírio & Alvim, 2001

The awareness of ephemerality did not nullify the compelling need to have in the ”life“ of the family a “cement” that mercilessly pierced the past and the future, from the childhood in Africa to the (re)born childhoods, for whom the home should be. In the teardrop-shaped triangle that we find in a corner of Gemeses, in Esposende, towards the banks of the Cávado River, shall then “fit” a large social space for the whole family, both interior and exterior, and three units for overnight stay, all this properly articulated with the arrival and accommodation of a few cars (the only way to get there), and through the “childhood(s)” I would always add this representation of time, transversal to all spaces. The articulation shall be added as well with all the classical conditioning of architecture, from the various commitments with the place to the dialogue between us and the rules established by public entities.