Casa Coutinho de Azevedo - o habitar do espaço interior

Abstract

The architectural exercise has as fundamental purpose to shelter human life. As architects, we should build spaces capable to meet the demands and peculiarities of different ways of life and the various needs of the human being, whether they are physical or intellectual, creating conditions for life to take place. The domestic space presents itself as the space of individuality and, therefore, as the exponent of this thought. Conceived as a celebration of life, this is a privileged field for the studies of the matters related with the act of inhabit, the role of the subject on the spatial conception and the true essence of the domestic space, reflecting on the architect's position on these issues. We relate with the world that surrounds us by inhabiting it. We are, hence, bonded with the space in which we live, in a continuous dialogue that extends itself throughout the long period of our existence and that defines our sense of being-in-the-world, up until the point in which the space and the individual merge, in a primary and fundamental spatial experience. Space and subject live in a relationship of interdependence, where they inform each other mutually and uninterruptedly. This relationship allows both parties to influence each other in an active way, feeding each other at the same time, in a growth process where the subject builds space in the same way that the space molds him. It is based in this dialogue that this dissertation will build itself. The study will seek a greater understanding of the relationship that is established between the subject and the space, a higher comprehension about a group of questions that are, undoubtedly, primordial on the architectural exercise. The narrative is accompanied by a project that intends to explore some of the stated questions in a practical context. The project will be presented according to a series of studies that focus on a bourgeois single-family house, located in Coutinho de Azevedo Street, in the city of Porto. This space is seen as an experimentation field, where one looks to understand how a domestic space built on the XIX century can be adapted to the demanding and multiple circumstances of contemporary life. The proposed scenarios will, thus, reflect on new and diverse forms of appropriation of the interior spaces, making it a complementary exercise to the written work, since Architecture is both a theoretical and practical matter.