Architecture practice Filipe Pina Arquitectura has been in charge of the renovation of the House in Bencanta, located in Coimbra, Portugal. The building is located in Bencanta, in the interior of the city of Coimbra, the small house was uninhibited and went unnoticed.

The original building of the place was lost, and the way to recover it, that architect Filipe Pina uses, will be to maintain the simplicity of the original building, as well as recover the original volume and the design and geometry of its elements.

Filipe Pina carries out a small intervention on the exterior of the building to keep the memory of the main house alive, and replaces the windows to improve the relationship between the exterior and the interior.

Instead, the interior was conditioned to meet the comfort standards that the new owners were looking for. They will use wood for the interiors: floors, ceilings and walls. Both the project and its execution were carried out through a close participatory process between the architect and the clients.

House in Bencanta by Filipe Pina. Photography by Ivo Tavares Studio

House in Bencanta by Filipe Pina. Photography by Ivo Tavares Studio.

Project description by Filipe Pina arquitectura

When we visited it for the first time, the house was uninhibited and looked sad. The original building was lost, spreading itself in multiple annexes over the land plot. Our objective was to keep alive the memory of the main house, with some minor intervention on its exterior. We kept the original volume as well as the design and geometry of its elements.

The only changes focused on replacing the windows to enhance the links between the interior and exterior of the house. We soon understood that we should maintain the house functional structure which aged significantly over time. We introduced some changes in the interior parts to make it fit to new standards of comfort expected by the new owners.

Due to the simplicity of the original building, lacking elaborated features, we kept a simple concept when developing our project, only incorporating some color, some wood elements, new bathrooms and kitchen. We kept the wooden floors and interiors, some ceilings and walls. This project and its execution was only possible thanks to a close participatory process between the architect and the clients.

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Architects
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Project team
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Filipe PinaAndré Teixeira, Diana Cruz.

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Collaborators
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Interiors Team.- Rita Morais.

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Area
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170 sqm.

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Dates
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Year of conclusion.- 2021.

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Location
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Coimbra, Portugal.

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Photograph
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Filipe Pina Arquitectura is an architecture studio founded in 2015 by Filipe Pina (b. 1983, Paris, France), located in Guarda, in the interior of Portugal.

Filipe Pina is a Portuguese architect trained at the University of Beira Interior in Covilhã, Portugal, where he earned a Master's degree in Architecture between 2003 and 2008. During his studies, he participated in an Erasmus exchange program at the Prima Facoltà di Architettura Ludovico Quaroni of Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) from 2006 to 2007, expanding his training in international academic environments.

After graduating, Pina gained professional experience in various contexts, including internships in Paris: at the Médiathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine through the Inov-Art program, and at the Service Départemental de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine through a Leonardo da Vinci grant, both in 2009.

His professional career also included work in the Urban Planning Department of the Celorico da Beira City Council (2011–2012) and a stint as an architect at Modular-System in Porto (2013–2015). Before establishing his own studio, he developed individual projects and collaborations from 2011 onward, and formed professional partnerships, including with Maria Inês Costa and with the architect David Bilo.

In 2014, Filipe Pina founded his own studio in the city of Guarda, Portugal: Filipe Pina Arquitectura. Since then, he has led a workshop that tackles projects of varying scales, with an approach that explores the relationship between contemporary architecture and the local roots and materials of the Portuguese context. The studio works on both renovations and new constructions, where an interest in vernacular architecture is evident, reinterpreted through contemporary, sustainable, and site-sensitive solutions.

Among his most representative works are renovations and extensions of traditional Portuguese houses, such as Casa Caldeira and Casa NaMora, where he combines traditional materials—like granite, slate, and wood—with contemporary design and construction strategies, always in dialogue with the landscape and the memory of the place.

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Published on: August 20, 2026
Cite:
metalocus, NICOLÁS RUIZ CARRILLO
"Cozy little home. House in Bencanta by Filipe Pina" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/cozy-little-home-house-bencanta-filipe-pina> ISSN 1139-6415
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