Casa Resiliente. Entre Comunidade e Intimidade no Lugar de Cadinha

Abstract

This dissertation proposes the design of a collective housing project within a low-density context, taking as its case study a family home in the author's hometown of Lourosa, situated in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira. The local urbanity reveals an inherent tension between fragmented areas within the urban fabric and a marked contrast between urbanised zones and agricultural or rural pockets. Housing remains a pre-eminent subject of architectural discourse, with particular emphasis placed on the challenges of accessibility and the capacity to respond to the diverse, unpredictable needs of contemporary family units. Given the myriad ways of living, the dwelling must remain adaptable. Consequently, this project seeks to challenge the concept of an static home, characterised by rigid and repetitive compartmentalisation, which often fails to accommodate domestic units with differing and evolving objectives, lifestyles, and realities. The dissertation culminates in the development of a Resilient House, structured through the courtyard terrace typology and organised into clusters of volumes. The design is informed by an experimental process that revisits the practices of architects whose narratives align with the compositional and matrix principles of the house, particularly those that articulate intermediate and collective spaces within low-density, multi-family housing. The project explores themes of resilience and inclusion that adapt to shifting social dynamics. Furthermore, the case studies facilitate a reflection on architecture's capacity to adapt to social transformations, the evolution of relationships within both the family and the wider community, and the nuanced articulation between various levels of private and shared space. When addressing a diverse public, it is essential to identify strategies that accommodate a variety of family structures. To this end, this research explores spatial devices that can be reconfigured in the short or long term, alongside spatial typologies that foster interaction and interrelationship between individuals. The project asserts that spatial indefiniteness, indifference, and the absence of hierarchy are fundamental principles of resilience. At the scale of public space, the inclusive, catalytic, and communal roles of intermediate and indeterminate collective spaces are tested and evaluated.