House in Monsaraz
Aires Mateus
ARCHITECTS
Aires Mateus
MANUFACTURERS
GIRA
CONSTRUCTOR
JDS, Manuel Mateus Frazão
PROJECT LEADER
Inês Cordovil, Helga Constantino
COLLABORATORS
Humberto Silva, André Passos, Susana Rodrigues, Joana Simões
ENGINEERING
AFAconsult
PHOTOGRAPHS
João Guimarães, Rui Cardoso, AMA – Aires Mateus
SITE AREA
227118.5 ft²
BUILT AREA
1872.9 FT²
AREA
1872 ft²
YEAR
2018
LOCATION
Portugal
CATEGORY
Houses
Text description provided by architect.
Faced with the boundless extents of the Alqueva lake, 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.
