Houses in Portugal
Monthly Editorial Edition 02 / August 2024
Tour This Month's Top Houses in Portugal. We have gathered up 5 of the most inspiring homes in Portugal for our monthly edition.
Take a Look at This Month's Standouts:
House in Ancede
Architects: atelier local
This house attests to the idea that architecture is a long, arduous and patient process. From the outset, it redefined for us the sense that architecture is expected to cross various scales, spanning from the design of a door handle to the modeling of its territory. Until the end, it was conceived as a refurbishment, even though it was practically built from scratch.
Casa do Monte
Architects: Leopold Banchini Architects
Established in 1147 by Augustinians and rebuilt after the earthquake of 1755, the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Monte dominates the city of Lisbon. The popular neighbourhood built around the historical hermitage holds on to the steep hillside. Accessible via narrow stairs only, many houses have been abandoned over the years. A building in rubble is reconstructed to host the single family house on three levels. The regular rhythm of the historical openings in the white facade of the building is preserved, but the interiors are carved to create larger volumes, play on light and views. Double high spaces allow for breathing and communication between the floors, generating a flowing and undivided space.
House in Rua São Francisco de Borja
Architects: Ricardo Bak Gordon
Located in the Lapa neighborhood, next to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, this house is built on a narrow and long plot, measuring approximately 7m x 26m. Originally the plot was occupied by a small industrial pavilion, which was entirely removed to make way for the new house. The idea of building a house integrated into a block, where only the façade relates to the city and its context is a theme that has always been part of Bak Gordon's thinking.
“How to build a house with the language of its time, that simultaneously respects and enhances the virtues of the place?”
CASA M
Architects: Vincent Van Duysen Architects
Casa M was a labor of love that took over three years to build in Melides, Portugal. The team behind its design together with Van Duysen, the actual client, sought to create an enduring monument to design – a sculptural oeuvre camouflaged by the rolling hills, dunes and cork trees of Alentejo, south of Lisbon, where flocks of storks hover high above it. With an exterior of exposed aggregate (a type of concrete left unsealed to reveal its craggy components) tinted a bone hue to vanish into its sandy surroundings, the compound achieves the opposite effect of its Brutalist forebears, which tended to overpower the landscape.
Very Tiny Palace House
Architects: fala atelier
A tiny palace in a narrow garden. The luxuriant environment suggested an ambivalent approach to the architectural object. At the human height, the palace is transparent, but its crown is proud, adorned with precious stones, and spans across the perimeter walls.
