This building directly relates to the 3 primary themes - A house is an environmental filter, a house is a container of human activities and a house is a delightful experience.
The house has been inserted into the decending hill as if it were apart of the natural surroundings, throughout the building process, 2 trees were removed. It embraces the natural enviroment by using the slope as the homes main characteristic. As you can see in the pictures it is surrounded by trees and srubs, Alvaro had to design his building to blend in with the surrounding environment.
The house features two natural forms of insulation, one being cooled in the warmer months using the earth which surrounds it on three sides. It further contains concrete pavers for added weather protection and thermal insulation. The way Casa Tolo was designed to belnd in with the environment was by the choice of ecposed concrete as it portrays massive stones appearing naturally on the site.
If you like waking up to gentle soft rays of the sunrise than you will never leave Casa Tolo. The bulding faces north and allows it to recieve optimal solar exposed. More importantly he designed the bedrooms and placed them into the earth on 45 degree angles, this lets the room shine a large amount of sun inside the room early mornings.
The functional use of the house is exceptional. The exterior stairs mirror the interior stairs which have the same function of linking the internal spaces. From the top of either the interior or exterior stairs they link each different room which will be further shown in diagrams.
Between each room they are basically built on top of each other and linking them with a set of stairs make the rooms all adjacent to each other.
The house also features timber stairs which mirror image the concrete stairs on the exterior to further unveil the linear function of the house. As the building is built on a mountain range which is quite steep, there are several critical views from both inside and out. The iving room, study, bedroom and each balcony overlook the bottom gully of the mountain providing and experience of being apart of the forrest.
The house has been inserted into the decending hill as if it were apart of the natural surroundings, throughout the building process, 2 trees were removed. It embraces the natural enviroment by using the slope as the homes main characteristic. As you can see in the pictures it is surrounded by trees and srubs, Alvaro had to design his building to blend in with the surrounding environment.
The house features two natural forms of insulation, one being cooled in the warmer months using the earth which surrounds it on three sides. It further contains concrete pavers for added weather protection and thermal insulation. The way Casa Tolo was designed to belnd in with the environment was by the choice of ecposed concrete as it portrays massive stones appearing naturally on the site.
If you like waking up to gentle soft rays of the sunrise than you will never leave Casa Tolo. The bulding faces north and allows it to recieve optimal solar exposed. More importantly he designed the bedrooms and placed them into the earth on 45 degree angles, this lets the room shine a large amount of sun inside the room early mornings.
The functional use of the house is exceptional. The exterior stairs mirror the interior stairs which have the same function of linking the internal spaces. From the top of either the interior or exterior stairs they link each different room which will be further shown in diagrams.
Between each room they are basically built on top of each other and linking them with a set of stairs make the rooms all adjacent to each other.
The house also features timber stairs which mirror image the concrete stairs on the exterior to further unveil the linear function of the house. As the building is built on a mountain range which is quite steep, there are several critical views from both inside and out. The iving room, study, bedroom and each balcony overlook the bottom gully of the mountain providing and experience of being apart of the forrest.
References
Feireiss K & L 2006, Architecture of Change.
Sustainability & humanity in the built environment, London.
Fundacao de Serralves 2009, jorgetsvaresmsn youtube video,
viewed on 20 March 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJqEnZHK_Ys
Pearson, Clifford, A 2006, 'In northern Portugal, Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira cascades Casa Tolo down a steep slop through terraced gardens, Architectural Record, vol. 198, issue 4, pp. 128-135.
Casa Tolo 2005, A Weekly Dose of Architecture, New York,
viewed 13 March 2010, http://www.archidose.org/May06/050806.html
Casa Tolo 2004, Concrete,
viewed 13 March 2010, http://www.concrete.net.au/CplusA/issue5/casa.php
World Changing, 2009, Architectural gem of the day: Casa Tolo,
viewed 25 March 2010 http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008408.html
FG+SG 2006, Alvaro Leite Siza Vierira,
viewed 12 March 2010, http://www.fernandoguerra.com/tolo/
Feireiss K & L 2006, Architecture of Change.
Sustainability & humanity in the built environment, London.
Fundacao de Serralves 2009, jorgetsvaresmsn youtube video,
viewed on 20 March 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJqEnZHK_Ys
Pearson, Clifford, A 2006, 'In northern Portugal, Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira cascades Casa Tolo down a steep slop through terraced gardens, Architectural Record, vol. 198, issue 4, pp. 128-135.
Casa Tolo 2005, A Weekly Dose of Architecture, New York,
viewed 13 March 2010, http://www.archidose.org/May06/050806.html
Casa Tolo 2004, Concrete,
viewed 13 March 2010, http://www.concrete.net.au/CplusA/issue5/casa.php
World Changing, 2009, Architectural gem of the day: Casa Tolo,
viewed 25 March 2010 http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008408.html
FG+SG 2006, Alvaro Leite Siza Vierira,
viewed 12 March 2010, http://www.fernandoguerra.com/tolo/
Use the links that are located on the right of this page.
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