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Glass Heart Anchors Monteiro House

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The Monteiro House, sited at the edge of São Miguel da Guarda in Portugal makes unusual use of a staircase encased in glass at its center, forming a transparent glass box linking two structures to form the house.

At the top, the glass curtainwall simply continues across the sky, bringing sunlight deep into the center of the house.

Since it is necessary to walk through the view every day to get upstairs to the bedrooms and downstairs to the kitchen, the views are experienced in more the way that views are experienced while walking outside.

By siting the view in the functional space of a glass stairwall at the center of the house, the view becomes integral to the experience of living and moving through the space, in a way that a “sit down” view does not.

From outside, the two sides of the house, sited at the very edge of the recently urbanized city with its two-story transparent center containing the stairway is apparent.

The bleak scrub desert landscape outside would suggest that the sunfilled center might get too hot, although perhaps it is in a region that is arid but cold.

Inside on each of the two sides of the house, full height doors act as movable walls that allow the rooms full access to the sunfilled center skylight when wanted, while also providing shaded relief from the sun’s heat with low windows.

Via ArchDaily