拉夫拉住宅丨葡萄牙丨WER Studio

Lavra House stands on a narrow urban lot in Matosinhos, Portugal, where WER Studio rethinks how a family home meets the Atlantic climate. The house inverts the conventional layout, dropping bedrooms to the ground floor and lifting social rooms to higher levels to gain privacy, light, and air. Across concrete, steel, and timber, the project choreographs daily life around a central stair and a rooftop terrace with pool.

A slim house fronts the street, its depth only revealed once inside and the central courtyard steals a glimpse of sky. Light filters past concrete ceilings and timber screens, catching on the stair that pulls the eye upward toward the coastal horizon.

This is a compact house on a tight 10 meter by 18 meter (32.8 foot by 59.1 foot) lot, yet the daily experience feels generous and layered. WER Studio organizes the 184 square meter (1,980 square foot) construction around an inverted program: quiet rooms sit close to the ground and courtyard, while the social life climbs. The architecture focuses on how a family moves through the day, aligning circulation, privacy, and climate to get the most from a dense urban plot near the ocean.

Bedrooms and the office occupy the ground level, turning inward to a central courtyard that filters light and shields from the street. This level wraps the 180 square meter (1,937 square foot) plot with a sense of enclosure, using wooden panels to create total blackout and privacy when needed. The courtyard side softens the edge, so waking, working, and resting unfold against a calm protected garden instead of a busy sidewalk. Storage slips beside the stair in custom panels, keeping the floor clear for daily movement.

Stacking Social Life Above

The kitchen centers this elevated life. A robust island anchors cooking and conversation, allowing people to circulate freely around it during meals and gatherings. Overhangs extend the interior outwards, with benches that act as guardrails and casual seating, giving the living level a relaxed extension toward the view. Outdoor surfaces and interior rooms share materials, which tightens the connection between inside table and terrace edge.

Stair As Daily Spine

Movement through Lavra House revolves around a single stair that changes character as it rises. At ground level, clay brick steps grow from a masonry base, the same finish used outside to blur the threshold. This solid footing anchors daily routines that begin in bedrooms, move through the office, and then climb toward shared rooms.

Higher up, the stair shifts to floating steps anchored to the wall and held by vertical steel cables that run the full height. This change from heavy to light marks a mental shift, too, from grounded privacy to open sociability. The open run keeps sightlines between levels, so family members stay visually connected even as they move to different floors. It reads as a vertical promenade, not just a link between stacked slabs.

Light, Breeze And Comfort

Everyday comfort here relies on careful handling of light and air rather than constant mechanical support. Broad glass openings draw daylight into rooms and corridors, while operable panels and a small terrace window set up quick cross-ventilation. Working with a paired opening at ground level, that upper vent can cool the house fast, so windows stay open even on windy days.

The building turns its back to harsh northern winds common in northern Portugal, which lets residents keep terraces and rooftop in use for more of the year. Underfloor heating runs through most rooms for colder months, balancing the passive ventilation strategy with steady warmth. In bedrooms, soft colors and complete blackout panels support rest, while bathrooms rely on metal doors and textured glass for privacy without sacrificing borrowed light.

Textures For Daily Use

Concrete and steel form the structural backbone, but they also touch daily life in ceilings, stair finishes, and bathroom partitions. Exposed concrete slabs carry a custom formwork pattern planned by the architects, so the overhead surface reads as a crafted finish rather than raw infrastructure. Even curtain tracks hide inside the slab, cast in during construction to keep lines clean around windows.

Inside, the family’s existing furniture mixes with wood and rattan pieces to keep rooms relaxed and unforced. In the office volume, continuous cabinetry panels line the walls, with doors that mimic fixed fronts to maintain a quiet visual field. A central table stands on a single leg with an overhanging base, leaving clear floor around it and reinforcing the sense of visual lightness.

From street to stair, courtyard to rooftop pool, daily routines move vertically through shadow, breeze, and measured views. Lavra House uses its narrow, deep lot as a framework for layered living rather than a constraint. Each level carries a distinct tempo, yet the house reads as one continuous route shaped by light, material, and the changing needs of the day.