Potential house for the summer school programme
Two houses in an ilha are likely going to enter our architecture summer programme! Check it out, and give us your impressions!
Ilha (island in Portuguese) is a popular type of habitation typical in Porto. If they seem to have appeared long ago in the 13th century, this communal housing system became widely used only in the late 19th century with the industrialisation. They appeared first in the east of the city, but then extended to the whole city.
The usual plot is 5.5 to 7m wide, facing the street, and can be 100m long. The first 30m are dedicated to the house bourgeoise, the rest being occupied by small houses aligned facing a narrow corridor. These small habitational units’ size go from 9 to 22m², with a usual width of 4m. They consist of a door, a window, a main room, a second 2.5m by 1.5m room in the back, and a kitchen (1.5m by 1.5m), with sometime an improvised small attic room. Toilets are shared in a proportion of 1 toilet per 5 houses.
As you see, in this case an additional storey has been added to one of the house. Curious cinderblock‘s technique, right?!
Let’s see what we do with this!!
