Switchback House

A two-storey family house that steps up a steep plot in Porto, with a pitched roof and a stair that climbs the bank behind.

Location

Porto, Portugal

Year

2023

Area

196 m²

Status

Completed

Client

Private client

Team

Helen Marsh, Tom Ashby, Sam Walker

Context

The plot lies on a south-facing slope above a quiet street, with a retaining bank about four metres high along its rear edge. The client wanted a family house with a garden they could actually use and a kitchen that opens to the south. Digging the whole footprint into the hill would have been costly and dark, so we kept the ground floor close to street level and let the bank decide where the building turns. The brief also asked for a roof that sheds the heavy autumn rain without gutters crossing the facade, and for neighbours to keep their views over the valley.

Concept

The plan is two rectangles that slip past each other. The ground floor runs the full fourteen metres across the plot; the upper floor is three metres shorter and sits back, so the south terrace gets a deep roof edge for shade and the house reads as two small volumes rather than one large one. A single stair, set in the middle of the plan and lit from the roof, ties both floors to the bank behind. Rooms are arranged along that stair: kitchen and living below, bedrooms above, and a small study that opens onto the bank path. The pitched roof is set at 32 degrees to match the neighbouring houses.

Construction

The ground floor is reinforced concrete cast against the retaining bank, which carries the soil load and keeps the lower rooms dry. Above it, the upper floor and roof are timber frame with mineral wool between the studs and a ventilated lime-rendered facade. Windows are timber, triple-glazed on the north side and double-glazed on the south, where the roof overhang limits summer sun. Floors are laid with a screed over underfloor heating fed by an air-to-water heat pump. Rainwater runs to a buried tank and waters the terraced garden.

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