Trevo House

Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha

TREVO HOUSE

Double(o) Studio

AREA
300 m²

 YEAR
2020

LOCATION
Aroeira, Portugal

PHOTOGRAPHS
Fabio Cunha, Marco Antunes

CONTRACTOR
CS Construtora

ENGINEERING
Joao Silva

CATEGORY
Houses

 LEAD ARCHITECTS
Olivier Ottevaere, Elsa Caetano

LOCAL ARCHITECT
Marco Antunes

A HOUSE FOR THE SUN.

‘Casa Trevo’ or ‘Trefoil House’ is a two-storey residence, located south of Lisbon, Portugal.

Trevo House
© Marco Antunes
Trevo House
Top view of construction animation. Image Courtesy of Double(o) Studio

The site’s close proximity to the Atlantic Ocean provides pleasant breezes and plenty of sunshine, across all seasons. The project sits in a forest of pine trees, rising tall above a sandy terrain.

Inside, the rooms are organized around three outdoor patios, circular in shape.  They function as extensions of the interior spaces as well as being light wells and large openings for the living quarters below and sleeping rooms above.

Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha

The nine-meter high patios also perform as main structural voids in the form of three hollowed and semi-open columns.

Together, they support a series of floor slabs ascending at different increments.

They also hold a beam of water, serving as a lap pool on the rooftop and whose underbelly is pressing down on the spaces below.

Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha

The structure is made of cast-in-place concrete and plays off the ambiguity of mass and void and of inside and outside.

It addresses the site by stepping the ground plane along its natural slope and by bringing that level difference inside.

Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha

It is anchored into the ground firmly but irregularly around its perimeter vis-à-vis the terrain.

‘Casa Trevo’ exerts a peculiar sense of autonomy and monumentality, despite its small size.

Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha
Trevo House
© Marco Antunes

It is unified by concrete on the outside, subverting the perception of its scale, while serving as canvas for a dialogue between nature and architecture to be projected.

It also exudes a solid impression of mass while revealing little of its inside.

The house produces its own introverted world facing the sun, with private yet mutable spaces rendered intermittently by Lisbon’s brash light.

Trevo House
© Fabio Cunha


Trevo House
Site plan
Trevo House
Ground floor plan
Trevo House
First floor plan
Trevo House
Roof top plan


Trevo House
Longitudinal section A
Trevo House
Transversal section C


Trevo House
Unrolled elevations
Trevo House
East elevation
Trevo House
South elevation
Trevo House
Detail


Trevo House
Plan diagrams
Trevo House
Primary structure diagram
Trevo House
Circulation and slabs diagram
Trevo House
Detail form boards patio


Trevo House
Patios sun studies
Trevo House
Part model of structure