CL2 House

In a row built to repeat, a house that refused to be the same.

Leça da Palmeira, Portugal · 2017 - 2022

EN PT

Typology Residence

Size 406m2

Location Leça da Palmeira

Status Built

Project ID 17CL2

The refusal to repeat

CL2 House stands on a plot meant for terraced housing, in a layout designed to repeat. Where the planning foresaw uniformity, the house answered to the real life of one family rather than to the rule.

Solids and voids, measured

The massing grows from the alignments and levels of the place, and from a deliberate act of composition. Setbacks and projections draw solids and voids, openings and blind faces that expose here and shelter there. Privacy and light are calibrated with precision.

A staircase as spine

Inside, everything gathers around the staircase. It is the spine of the house: it links the three levels and orders how the spaces are shared. In the basement it becomes a wall; from there it turns into a sculptural body that guides movement without ever cutting it off.

A skylight that pours the day

On the ground floor, arrival opens into an inhabitable, double-height atrium. A continuous skylight runs its full length and pours light with an almost tactile density, casting shadows that move through the day. This is the true atmospheric core of the house.

From kitchen to garden, an axis of light

From the atrium, the house opens into three quadrants: kitchen, living room and the atrium itself. Between kitchen and dining runs a second axis of light, now horizontal, tying the house to the garden and carrying life beyond the built edges.

A shelf that lets light through

Upstairs, the route ends in an informal study, framed by a transparent bookshelf that keeps the eye connected to the atrium below. A roof lantern filters a raw, steady light that crosses the day without shifting, lending the workspace a domestic calm.