Portico House - A two-story hillside residence designed to earn its setting through restraint rather than gesture.
The site was the starting point. A hillside parcel with panoramic exposure, and an obvious temptation: to meet the view with architecture that matches its ambition. Sites like this don't need to be met — they need to be occupied thoughtfully.
The response is a plan oriented consistently toward the view, with open social spaces on the ground floor and private suites above. Expansive glazing and generous terraces do the connective work between interior and landscape. The material palette — stucco, dark window frames, warm stone retaining walls — reads clearly against the hillside without competing with it.
The result is a residence that earns its setting through orientation and material rather than gesture. Sophisticated where it needs to be, relaxed where it counts.
Location St. John, United States Virgin Islands
Typology: Residential new build
Services: Architectural construction drawings, permit obtaining
Built area: approx 3500 sq.ft./280 sq.m.
Status: Construction drawings finished
Lead architect: Andrei Vasilief
Project architect: Larissa Laurentiz
Structural engineering: Paul Ferreras, Walt Basnight
Ground floor
Upper floor
The main level is a single open volume: living, dining, and kitchen arranged around a large island and oriented toward the terrace and pool deck. The threshold between inside and outside is deliberately ambiguous — the floor plane continues, the ceiling line holds, and the glazing does the separating. A guest suite and additional bedroom are integrated without interrupting the flow of the social core.
Upstairs, two bedroom suites each open directly to balconies with unobstructed views. Floor-to-ceiling windows run the length of the façade — less a design gesture than a straightforward response to what the site offers. The material palette is restrained: stucco, dark frames, warm stone retaining walls. Enough contrast to read clearly against the hillside, not enough to compete with it.
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