Whe someone arrives, from the west, to the house designed by Aires Mateus, sole the patios and superior dome painted in radiant white, are visible in the landscape. Access, bounded by a subtle fence of metal rods, is made through a thin deep cut into ground, opening a staircase that leads down into the single-storey house.
The staircase links with a corridor, with walls are lined with wooden panels that are left raw. The corridor runs diagonally across the square shape plan house, with bedrooms and bathrooms opens onto circular patios, using white tiling to cover their walls.
The eastern end of the corridor arrives onto two large rooms – a kitchen and a living space – looking out the landscape through large windows under a roof emerging from the hillside to form a huge canopy defined by a series of inverted domes concrete.
The staircase links with a corridor, with walls are lined with wooden panels that are left raw. The corridor runs diagonally across the square shape plan house, with bedrooms and bathrooms opens onto circular patios, using white tiling to cover their walls.
The eastern end of the corridor arrives onto two large rooms – a kitchen and a living space – looking out the landscape through large windows under a roof emerging from the hillside to form a huge canopy defined by a series of inverted domes concrete.
Project description by Aires Mateus
Faced with the boundless extents of the Alqueva reservoir, the house requires a centre: a protected courtyard embracing the water.
It uses the terrain to cast a dome that covers the social areas and is the life centre of the house. An inverted dome intersects it and creates an opening that lights the space, shaping its precise geometry and limits. The bedrooms open onto circular patios.
Amid a wide natural landscape, the scale of the house is that of the patios and superior dome. They are the sole visible elements, painted in radiant white.
