“Casa no Crato” was designed for a couple who loves nature and silence and that was looking for a retreat place, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It is located at the upper part of Alentejo region, in Portugal, on a property of about 70 hectares, where oaks, holm oaks, cork oaks and common brooms populate the various hills and create an idyllic landscape. A small flowing watercourse crosses the entire terrain, giving rise to a lagoon that serves as a refreshment point for grazing animals.
The house is located in the Southwest of Alentejo, deep in the Grandola hills. The gently undulating topography contrasts with the harsh dryness of the landscape and its bare vegetation of cork and holm oaks with sparse bushes creeping from the calcareous soil.
Given its remoteness and isolation, the house echoes the tradition of the Portuguese alcáçova, or qasbah, following its Arab etymology, which functioned as a defensive citadel, or compound, with its constructions built within and protected by a high-walled perimeter. Poetically, it summons the Heideggerian notion of “bounded space”, of the human need to define a place of dwelling amidst the endlessness of the landscape. In fact, this typology of a fortified farm is the dominant form of occupation across the Maghreb and the Mediterranean, from Roman antiquity and Arab settlements, to Fernand Pouillon’s and Le Corbusier’s excursus in Argel.
In Cercal House time and space are not separate dimensions but rather interdependent.
There is the time that corresponds to the cycles of nature, the time of who inhabits the place and there is the space that is shaped and influenced by it.
Alentejo – the place where the house is located – is also a challenge. As Miguel Torga says, Alentejo represents “the maximum and the minimum we can aspire to: the wilderness of an infinite dream and the reality of an exhausted soil.”1
The Cercal House is thus a proposal that explores the possibilities of a new time and space in a place also marked and altered by the novelty of the house, wishing ultimately to build a renewed commitment between man and landscape.
Located on the southern coast of Portugal, dominated by plains and atlantic breezes, this property has belonged to the same family for over a hundred years.
Situated deep in the idyllic and peaceful Alentejo wine region of Portugal, the Torre de Palma Wine Hotel (link is external) is, for the first time, welcoming guests to experience the ultimate wine tasting and adventure holiday. Guests are invited to experience the majestic history of the manor house, its vineyards and wine making process and the many adventurous activities on offer. The hotel has been painstakingly restored to fuse past and present offering luxury alongside a tradition. The hotel was renovated with a view to the future; sustainability informed the choice of materials, such as Kebony wood, and renewable energy sources are used throughout.
This project is located in Alentejo about 10 km inland from the Atlantic Ocean. The area features a hilly, rural landscape and is covered with beautiful old cork oaks.
The Alqueva water reservoir is the biggest artificial Lake of Western Europe and it’s located in the Portuguese region of Alentejo. Like most of the Portuguese countryside, the younger population of this territory is leaving and therefore the remaining population is decreasing and getting older.
In the area around the Alqueva water reservoir there are several little villages and small towns, although there are a significant amount of settlements they are not strong enough to create internal or regional dynamics.
The assignment was to build a new structure to replace the former temporary structure wich was in very poor condition and a new antechamber. The antechamber, needed to control the thermal exchanges, was tougt like a new perfect rock” among the others existing ones.
With a contemporary and minimalist approach, this exposed concrete weekend house is to be located in a rural area in upstate Reguengos de Monsaraz, Alentejo, Portugal.
The site is a clearing with dense wooded surroundings. The house has large glazed surfaces, increasing the interior exterior relation. Wooden sliding louvres, recessed in the walls, provide shade from the sun and protection from intruders. Roof slabs extend to the exterior, shading the glazed panels.
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