A minha casa não é melhor que a da vizinha. Um projecto para o terreno dos Coelhos, Almeida

Abstract

This project started at least a decade ago. It started with the young promise of José and Teresa that we would build a house for the family in Almeida, as a way to move out of Porto. That promise never became truth, in a certain way the priorities kept drifting to other subjects. Now, with the studies in a conclusive stage, we find in this dissertation the motive to recuperate such promise. Thus we organized this investigation and argumentation, theoretical, around a project, practical - the one to design the residence of the bookseller and the photographer that live in Porto, but that idealize for a long time a way to spend their routines in the serene and quiet town of Almeida, now focusing on the last third of their lives. Motivated by this 'pivotal' motif, we propose to structure the dissertation in three chapters: "1. Precondition", "2. Crisis" and "3. From ethics to aesthetics [about the role of references in the discourse]"; upholded respectively by three annexes: "A: records of the survey", "B: the project of the photographer and the one of the bookseller" and "C: elements of the proposal". The proposed structure matches, in our understanding, what we consider to be the key points of the practical experience of the stated architectural exercise. We sincerely hope that one day this document can be consulted, and can introduce some curious student to any of the evoked themes. We find equal success in both a future corroboration as in the rebuttal of this study, as long as it reveals a tool to densify any discourse of theoretical or practical nature.