Large glass doors open a double-height living space out onto a lush garden in this annexe to a 19th-century home in Porto by Bak Gordon Arquitectos.
Named Casa 2, the building was conceived by the Lisbon-based studio as a standalone "garden pavilion". It contains four ensuite bedrooms, a kitchen, library and communal living room across two floors, set within a large garden at the rear of the existing home.
The Casa 2 annexe was designed by Bak Gordon Arquitectos
Almost the entire southern end of the concrete building is wrapped in tall glass doors framed in oxidised brass, allowing the living area to blend with the garden in summer.
In the colder months, the space functions as a "winter garden" centred around a fireplace in the western corner. A winter garden framed in glass doors occupies the ground floor
"[Casa 2's] communal space is a generous, double-height winter garden, which ensures the transition between the intimacy of the rooms and the outdoor space," said Bak Gordon Arquitectos.
This contrast between openness and intimacy is reflected in the annexe's materials, with both the exterior and the living space finished with exposed pigmented concrete.
In the bedrooms and library, this rougher material is swapped for carpeted floors, Tadelakt plaster walls, fitted wooden furniture and terrazzo bathrooms.
Pigmented concrete walls are left exposed in the living space
The bedroom block has a trapezoidal shape, creating two small pockets of ga...