Expansion of Barrocas House / Carlos Castanheira

One arrives along a straight line, in amongst holm cork trees that defy all rules of stability, extending their arms into impossible cantilevers. This is a monte alentejano * and buildings emerge from this hill. These are recent buildings, and all of them of them built by the owner. The main building is in timber. Of so-called standard construction, which finds it somewhat difficult in adapting to the topography. Happy with the experience of living in a wooden house, the now larger family, intend to enlarge the main living room and add a bedroom, so as to create the necessary conditions to live here permanently. When one begins to alter what’s existing, little by little, it becomes evident that it is not enough to juxtapose or paste in new areas, new volumes.