Camarim

Casa Na Gateira

Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido

Casa na Gateira

Camarim

ARCHITECTS
Camarim

PHOTOS
Nelson Garrido

STATUS
Built

SIZE
3000 sqft - 5000 sqft

YEAR
2014

LOCATION
Penela, Portugal

TYPE
Residential › Private House

Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido

Gateira is a hamlet placed on a beautiful hill planted with vineyards, pines and olive trees with splendid views over the southern tip of Serra da Estrela, the highest point in mainland Portugal.

Casa Na Gateira
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido

The clients - a British couple - wanted a second home to give them space, open air and silence, in contrast to their life in London.

The first question: how to design on such a dramatic landscape, with an unusual balance between nature, agriculture and traditional architecture?

Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido

Our strategy was to interfere as little as possible: one enters the house in the upper part of the plot, through a wall that evokes the region’s traditional slate buildings and descends onto the house’s core – a social space split in 2 levels.

We may say that instead of a house in the landscape we thought of a house from the landscape, as though building a walk in the countryside.

Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido

From this space, the house’s volume breaks and extends along the topography in a subtle yet effective separation between social and intimate spaces i.e., every space sits on a different level and has direct access to the outside.

Beyond the romantic notion of a well-grounded house, extensive contact with the ground gives enormous energy benefits:

we use the earth’s endless thermal mass to balance air thermal amplitudes throughout the day and seasons.

Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido

The patio between the living room and the master bedroom is also a passive thermal device:

it creates a thermal differential between the swimming pool and the patio, which generates an ascending air flow across the house for cooling in spring and summer, and it allows intensive insulation of the most innermost point in the house in autumn and winter.

Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido


Casa Na Gateira
Casa Na Gateira
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido
Casa Na Gateira
© Nelson Garrido


Casa Na Gateira
Casa Na Gateira


Casa Na Gateira
Casa Na Gateira

Camarim
T +351 218 825501
Camarim
Campo Grande 10E, 1700-092 Lisboa, Portugal