arquitectura-G embeds blue concrete core with spiraling staircase in portuguese residence

Arquitectura-G embeds blue concrete core in Portuguese house

In Sintra, Portugal, Arquitectura-G completes House II, the latest intervention within a long-abandoned quinta de recreio, a rural estate historically devoted to agriculture and leisure. The project forms part of an ongoing sequence of works by the studio’s team, which seeks to conserve and rehabilitate the site’s buildings and reactivate the broader territory.

Strict regulations limited any change to the building’s external profile, facades, or roof, so Arquitectura-G responded by hollowing out the existing interior, retaining only the perimeter walls, and inserting a new structural body of blue-pigmented concrete. Rising from the basement cellar, this inserted core incorporates a helical staircase and extends upward to form the slabs of the upper levels. It culminates beneath a skylight on the first floor, where daylight streams into the central void and organizes the surrounding rooms.

the staircase culminates beneath a skylight on the first floor | all images by Maxime Delvaux, unless stated otherwise

historic wine cellar reinterpreted as a self-sufficient dwelling

Envisioned as a self-sufficient landscape of vineyards, orchards, forests, gardens, and livestock, the Barcelona-based team of Arquitectura-G transforms this estate under the principles of permaculture, an approach to design that works with natural ecosystems to create sustainable, regenerative, and resilient ways of living

The building itself, once a hybrid structure combining a wine cellar with living quarters for workers and servants, stood for decades as a fragmented volume of interlinked spaces stitched together by multiple staircases. The architects reinterpret this mixed typology into a single dwelling that preserves the memory of its dual past.

The blue concrete spine organizes the residence. On the ground floor, an open-plan arrangement of kitchen, dining, and living areas gathers around the staircase. Bedrooms occupy the upper level at both ends of the plan, while a secondary lounge occupies the skylit heart of the house, transforming what had been a utilitarian and subdivided structure into a unified domestic space in Portugal. 

this inserted core incorporates a helical staircase and extends upward to form the slabs of the upper levels

daylight streams into the central void and organizes the surrounding rooms

Arquitectura-G’s response to the strict regulations

the team hollows out the existing interior

the blue concrete spine organizes the residence

transforming what had been a utilitarian and subdivided structure

bathroom marble mirrors the core color of the home in soft blue hues

baby blue tones are combined with butter yellow finishes

the bathroom becomes a canvas of blue

Arquitectura-G’s latest intervention within a long-abandoned quinta de recreio

1/10

retaining only the perimeter walls | image by Francisco Ascensão

Arquitectura-G transforms this estate under the principles of permaculture | image by Francisco Ascensão

the building once combined a wine cellar with living quarters for workers and servants | image by Francisco Ascensão

the structure stood for decades as a fragmented volume of interlinked spaces | image by Francisco Ascensão

a single dwelling that preserves the memory of its dual past | image by Francisco Ascensão

basement floor plan | all drawings by arquitectura-G

ground floor plan

first floor plan

section 01

section 02

project info:

name: House II

architect: Arquitectura-G | @arquitecturag

location: Sintra, Portugal

lead designers: Jonathan Arnabat, Jordi Ayala-Bril, Aitor Fuentes, Igor Urdampilleta

project team: João Salsa

structural engineering: Gepectrofa

building services engineering: GPIC / Campo d’Agua / GET / Amplitude Acoustics 

project management: Gonçalo Bonniz / gbarquitectos

photographer: Maxime Delvaux | @maxdelv

process photographer: Francisco Ascensão | @francisco.ascensao