QBN House / Pardo Arquitectura

Architects: Pardo Arquitectura
Area: 360 m² (3875 ft²)
Year: 2022
Photography: José Campos
Lead Architects: Sofia Parente, André Delgado
City: Viana do Castelo
Country: Portugal

QBN House designed by Pardo Arquitectura in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, is a refurbished former farm building transformed into a family home. The house sits at the highest point of a rural farm, surrounded by greenery, stone terraces, and cultivated fields, maintaining harmony with its natural surroundings.

QBN house is located at the highest point and west limit of the family farm in a rural and low-density area of Viana do Castelo.

The house is surrounded by the greenery of the farm, characterized by a variety of trees, flowers, bushes, stone masonry terraces, slate paths, granite water tanks, cultivated fields, and orchards.

The former construction, now refurbished into the family house, had served various purposes such as a school, wine cellar, and agricultural storage at different times. The building is divided into two stone masonry juxtaposed volumes: an open construction contiguous to the street and a two-story building next to it.

Facing the street, the volume retains its slate masonry facade, consistent with the existing external walls. The Northside is finished with thermo-treated timber vertical strips to match the contiguous timber-structured roof. The gable roof of the two-story building was changed to the presumably original hip roof, increasing the facade’s volume and height.

Access to the house is through the covered area at the upper floor level, where the entrance, office, and passage to the main volume hosting the common areas and playroom are located. Existing openings were preserved and new ones were created to reveal the colors of the tree canopies inside the house.

The main space of the house is a long room, 13.5 meters (44.3 feet) in length, with a sloped ceiling. This room includes different areas: a piano area, a living, and a dining room. The dining area is highlighted by birch plywood panels covering one wall and the sliding door to the kitchen, continuing into one of the kitchen cabinets and marking the way to the outside. The lower floor contains private spaces, including three bedrooms and a living room with garden access.

Traditional solutions using natural and recyclable materials were chosen, such as lime-based plaster for the facades, timber window frames, timber roof structure, floor structure with timber beams, solid wood panels, insulated with expanded cork granules, and Riga wood-finished pavements.

The refurbishment of QBN house aimed to improve living conditions while preserving the building’s character, maintaining harmony with other farm constructions, and respecting its integration into the surroundings.