“This project was an opportunity to make new experiences within the Gomos building system: in each house, all the technical installations (water, electricity, and climatization) were concentrated in just one module and extended to the other models externally,” the architects say. “This procedure was standardly repeated in the whole project, accelerating its production/assembly process.”

Summary’s Gomos building system consists of concrete modular elements that simplify the building process. Derived from the way ordinary sewer pipes are constructed, the system is redesigned in order to make it habitable while preserving the stability and rapid deployment abilities of the concrete shells. It takes just a few days to assemble the buildings once they arrive on site.

Summary calls this system “evolutionary,” explaining that each module leaves the factory completely ready to live in, including all interior and exterior finishes, insulation, windows, water and electricity, and even built-in furniture. The system is designed to be flexible, so the structures can be sized up or down or given slightly different proportions according to the user’s needs.

In Paradinha, this translates to a series of angular modern buildings sheltered from the harsh sunlight and set at just the right angles to take advantage of the views. To the casual observer, the location of each one may seem a bit random, as if they were scattered across the plot and allowed to remain where they fell. But in reality, they were carefully arranged to follow the contours of the landscape and create privacy for the inhabitants of each one.

“They are distributed across the plot according to the natural configuration of the terrain, altering it as little as possible,” say the architects. “The old stone walls and the existing trees were preserved — the houses were carefully placed around them. Combining this apparently arbitrary positioning with different orientations allowed the houses not to block each other’s views. From the balconies, behind the wooden slates, we can see the forest and, in some cases, the river.”

The project proves that modularity doesn’t have to mean cookie-cutter identical structures all in a row. The concrete prefab cabins consist of four different shapes and sizes, ranging from 300 square feet to 625 square feet. Some are oriented horizontally, others vertically, their layout determined by pre-existing trees and landscape features. Each one features inscrutable concrete facades pierced by geometric windows, with one all-glass facade screened with latticed wood for shade in the heat of the afternoon.

“Resorting to prefabricated structures was not just a choice, but the only efficient option we had to simplify the building process within such conditions,” the architects explain.

The post Modular Concrete Cabins Offer Guests Privacy and Picturesque Views in Portugal first appeared on Dornob.

Recently, the architecture and woodworking studio Madeiguincho added their own name to that list with their unveiling of the “Adraga House.” Part of a series of “tiny houses on wheels” across their native Portugal, the group’s latest is just a further example of their woodworking prowess. No stranger to tiny homes built with an eye toward sustainability (see the off-grid tiny house “Ursa”), the studio has just created an idyllic iteration that’s perfectly at home in the heart of the forest, but whose design is really meant to be at home anywhere it happens to be.

Specifically designed for a retired couple aiming to disconnect from the busy outside world, the Adraga House may seem aesthetically simplistic upon first glance. But upon closer inspection, the tiny timber dwelling becomes a fully self-sustainable unit built with all the comforts of home in mind — albeit in an off-grid, environmentally friendly way.

Complete with solar power, a method for rainwater collection providing reusable water in both the kitchen and shower, and a dry toilet that allows compost to subsequently be used in the garden beds, the Adraga House is a mobile modern marvel that, true to the tiny home trend, looks much bigger than it appears on the outside.

Though the tiny home is open to travel, the team at Madeiguincho did envision a strong connection with its natural surroundings, specifically the gardens. An integral part of the house itself, the gardens are surprisingly mobile. They come with the house and only require simple assembly to create an outdoor area that’s both lovely to look at and provides a space for food composting and further cultivation.

Inside, the Adraga House goes full TARDIS mode, opening up to reveal a spacious living space that belies its otherwise-minuscule mien. Cleverly designed to maximize space through purposeful placement of both furniture and stairs, there’s also plenty of storage throughout — one of the most important features a tiny home can offer.

With all that storage space, the home – though amply furnished – doesn’t appear cluttered. Instead, its lofty living area houses both a king-size bed and a sofa bed, a full kitchen, and enough space for four people to live in relative comfort, making for the ultimate little house of (sustainable) luxury.

The latest in a series of tiny homes on wheels across Portugal, the Adraga House is a wooden work of wonder built by the creative design studio Madeiguincho. At home anywhere, the mobile, self-sustaining unit is designed with comfort, style, and eco-conscious living in mind, providing its owners with ample space despite its decidedly diminutive size and proving once again that the tiny home trend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The post Madeiguincho’s Newest Mobile Tiny Home is a Sustainable Wooden Wonder first appeared on Dornob.

Architects Olivier Ottevaere and Elsa Caetano took an “anti-facade” approach to “Casa Trevo” in Aroeira, Portugal. Designed as a retirement home for a couple relocating to the area, the residence rises from its scrubby open lot like a monument. Only a few pieces of glass can be glimpsed from the outside, and entrance points to the inner areas of the curving shape start to feel especially labyrinthine when you walk up only to see a void in a tall concrete wall.

What you can’t see from the ground are the residence’s primary draws: a rooftop swimming pool and multiple light-catching internal courtyards. These three circular outdoor patios are the axis points around which the layout of the rest of the home revolves. The architects conceived of the two-story house as a series of columns and voids stretching to the crowns of the adjacent pine trees, with the accessible rooftop offering exposure to the salty air blowing in from the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

“The nine-meter high patios also [serve] as main structural voids in the form of three hollowed and semi-open columns,” say the architects. “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.”

Inside the house, there’s no shortage of natural light, with various openings and skylights producing glowing shapes on the concrete floors, stairs, and white walls. Mimicking the topography of the slope outside, the home’s interiors can also be said to follow a much more straightforward logic than the strange and irregular exterior. This geometry becomes clear when viewed from above.

The firm adds that “’Casa Trevo’ exerts a peculiar sense of autonomy and monumentality, despite its small size. 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.”

A house like this isn’t for everyone, of course, and it’s fair to ask how well its multi-level layout and unforgiving surfaces will serve its retired owners in the later years of their lives. But it’s certainly unique, and who wouldn’t lust over that pool? Casa Trevo unquestionably has a bit of an experimental feel to it, and frankly, that’s something we could use more of in a world overflowing with residential architecture. The architects’ own past experiments with cast-in-place concrete and novel shapes in everything from architectural columns to viewing platforms have clearly informed the design, and they’re all interesting in their own right, too.

The post Casa Trevo: Monolithic Retirement Residence With a Rooftop Pool first appeared on Dornob.

Meaning “house in the earth,” the home’s name is extremely fitting, as the structure is organically camouflaged into a field of waving grasses and just a stone’s throw from the waters of Alqueva — Europe’s largest manmade lake.

The secret dwelling is the latest to be acquired by the Silent Living rental property group, a company dedicated to “the search for happiness and fulfillment” by providing patrons “a feeling of home.” According to its website, Casa na Terra fits instinctively within its carefully-curated portfolio as “the house honors very deeply its natural surroundings, finding shelter in the land itself.”

Designed by Lison-born architect Manuel Aires Mateus, the underground hideaway is an ArchDaily “Building of the Year 2020” award winner.

Aires Mateus is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Lisbon. He and brother Francisco founded the firm Aires Mateus in 1988 and have gone on to create a prolific body of work, earning both national and international honors along the way.

For this construction, the firm notes that “faced with the boundless extents of the Alqueva lake, the house require[d] a center: a protected courtyard embracing the water.” Indeed, the only feature visible from the lake is this focal piece, with the carved-out dome perched neatly over the concealed interior. The courtyard also opens into separate kitchen and living spaces that connect to the three en suite bedrooms via zig-zagging hallways. Each bedroom in turn opens onto its own “patio,” a circular air well painted in brilliant white to reflect light from above.

“The house is located in an area where construction is not allowed,” adds Aires Mateus. “Our ecological responsibility was also to make the house disappear into the landscape.”

Most of the bunker-like structure was built using concrete, while the interior finishes and furniture continue the theme of blending in with the surrounding environment. Aires Mateus says this minimalist-yet-inviting vibe was inspired by the notion of silence, incorporating elements like natural wood paneling, sheets of floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and built-in cabinets that are barely discernable from the rest of the wall to elevate that enveloping sensation of quiet. Rattan sofas and warm wood chairs soften the bare concrete surroundings. Even the hand-tied leather straps that serve as kitchen door handles conform to the voiceless flow of the house.

“In this case, the interior design and the architecture is not something to be seen, only to be felt,” Manuel explains.

Casa na Terra rates begin at €350 in the off-season, with a minimum stay of three nights. In the high season of June to September, seven-night reservations are required, with rates starting at €600. Breakfast and daily cleaning are included, and regardless of group size, the home is exclusively reserved for each booking party.

Aires Mateus has worked with Silent Living before, having renovated the 18th-century Santa Clara 1728, a stunning six-room hotel in Lisbon’s seven hills district.

The post Portugal’s Hottest New Vacation Rental Digs Deep in Its Design first appeared on Dornob.

A restaurant located quite far from Japan, in Lisbon, Portugal, honors these traditions in a very unusual way: through symbolic architecture. The Ajitama Ramen Bistro by JCFS Architects contains a gorgeous wooden trellis installation featuring a repeated motif of egg shapes. Located in a newly refurbished building on a block that dates back to the early 20th century, the bistro occupies a prominent position on a street corner, and the illuminated installation can be glimpsed from the doorway not long after dark.

The trellises are meant to recall the kind of complex wooden construction that’s often seen throughout Asia, commonly hand-crafted with an emphasis on the craftsmanship of the joinery. The architects explain that to them, the trellises symbolize the determination, rigor, and precision of the Japanese people. The egg shape, on the other hand, is pure comfort.

JCFS hoped to represent a duality between Eastern traditions and their Western interpretations, elegance and informality, softness and structure. The wooden framework is geometric but sculpted into ovoid shapes, sometimes stretching down vertical surfaces for a sense of continuity and envelopment. The design of the space would be serviceable enough without it, but the installation truly transforms the interiors.

The design team explains: “The Ajitama Ramen Bistro is a restaurant fruit of the dream and ambition of two friends in love with this traditional Japanese dish. After their visit to Japan, their long friendship was reinforced by this passion, the search for the most authentic ramen of Lisbon. Unlike many countries in Europe, the Ramen in Portugal was until a few years ago an unknown concept. The two friends, not being satisfied with the existing offerings, decided to venture into their own project together.”

“When JCFS was challenged to develop the [concept] for the restaurant, the egg – ‘the Ajitama,’ is present in everything that is the most beautiful, tasty, and memorable, and that we keep in memory when eating the ramen of these friends, [making it] the generator of all the construction of the idea for this place.”

“The repetition and interpretation of the egg gesture is projected in these facilities, [the] counter, [the] bathrooms … the result is a mixture of sensations in which the neons of the facade transport us to the crazy streets of Tokyo. The suspended wood, sculpted in the form of an egg, confers a lightness to the space, leaving us the sensation of having no end and in which the sky has no limit. The counter makes us remember the Japanese meal in its natural habitat, in which we visualize the chef to cook the beautiful delicacy.”

Is anyone else suddenly craving a hot bowl of fresh ramen?

The post Egg-Shaped Wooden Trellises Hang from the Ceiling of Lisbon Ramen Restaurant first appeared on Dornob.

A new treehouse in Cascais, Portugal falls somewhere in the middle, bringing modern sensibilities to a full-scale space that a grandfather has envisioned for his grandchildren. Portuguese design firm Madeiguincho is known for its carpentry and joinery prowess, often marrying wood with other materials like metal and stone in small structures like tiny houses, garden studios, and even shelters for animals. They also create custom wooden furniture on demand.

For the simply named “Treehouse for Grandchildren,” Madeiguincho created a full-scale space on a platform that looks like it could almost function as a second home. Supported by three strong trees, which grow up and through its floor and ceiling, the treehouse features slatted wood walls and large openings to the outdoors to facilitate free air circulation and regulation of sunlight inside. Elevated about a full story off the ground, it’s accessed by a staircase and measures about 15 square meters (161 square feet).

The architects explain: “This shelter was designed to include three trees in the project. A cedar that crosses the project and two tipuan that can delimit the platform. The support platform is supported by the three tree trunks and receives the house built in CLT panels and a cedar roof.”

“The entire exterior of the house was burned to better preserve the wood and subsequently bathed in linseed oil, allowing [it] to gain a cool and raw texture. This contrasts with a cleaner, warmer interior, with a natural wood texture, lightly treated with a matte oil. The natural light openings prevail in East-West orientation to get a better view of the sunrise and sunset.”

Looking at the photos, you can see there’s no question this treehouse wasn’t made by amateurs. It feels sturdy and contemporary, ready to be glassed in for use as guest quarters or a backyard studio once the children are grown. The contrast of light and pale wood tones gives its interior a lot of visual interest, too, and a sizable deck offers views of the adjacent home and swimming pool.

Browsing Madeiguincho’s other projects on Instagram, the skills and craftsmanship that have gone into this project become clear. The firm displays a love for beautiful wood, a strong proficiency at creating beautiful joints without the use of modern fasteners, and a knack for the kind of raw simplicity that leads to beautiful, professional-looking results infused with the traditions of the past.

When you were a kid, would you have wanted something like “Treehouse for Grandchildren,” which feels like it’s on par with structures made for adults, or do you prefer the smaller and more ordinary treehouses family members often build for their children?

The post Top-Notch Craftsmanship Shines in This Treehouse for Kids first appeared on Dornob.

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One of the influences behind this shift is a unique intersection of local culture and opportunity. For many decades, this underrated coastal city was a bit economically depressed, leading to a lot of derelict tenements and abandoned buildings. Even beautiful historical architecture began to deteriorate.

Starting in the 1970s, modernism began to creep in, as seen in the stark concrete silhouettes of the social housing complexes of the era. More recently, striking new modern projects have begun to pop up — along with breezy minimalist flats in freshly renovated buildings.

Step just a bit off the tourist path and you’ll find some of these gems, particularly in residential areas. Among the standouts are textural additions to matching townhouses by NPS Arquitectos, which now serve as the headquarters for the Portuguese Architectural Association, and Exmo Hotel by Floret, which infuses a prized historic building with modern industrial elements.

The cruise terminal at the Port of Leixões, designed by Luis Pedro Silva, is quite a magnificent way to enter the city. It looks like a ribbon unspooling from afar, and when you get up close, you can see that it’s covered in millions of tiny hexagonal azulejos, traditional tiles of the region.

A graphic facade on an Alegria residential building by MiMool Arquitectura & Design de Interiores manages to complement the surrounding traditional architecture without overpowering it, which isn’t an easy feat when it comes to bold patterns.

Arcs of curving steel adorn the glass facades of a marina complex in Porto by architects Barbosa & Guimarães. The Douro buildings are set on stilts to mimic the look of small gangways that connect the harbor wall and jetties nearby. White-painted steel on the exteriors features circular indentations meant to resemble the rivets on a ship.

Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma is collaborating with OODA to transform an abandoned slaughterhouse in the parish of Campanhã into a cultural center. The new building will have an undulating roof covered in glass panels and red ceramic tiles in a nod to one of the city’s most enduring architectural features.

OMA’s Casa da Musica has become one of Porto’s major landmarks, and it’s often referred to as lead architect Rem Koolhaas’ best work. The building is conceived as a single solitary mass standing atop a travertine-based plateau adjacent to a new public square in the historic Rotunda da Boavista.

Porto is also the birthplace of the great Pritzker Prize-winning Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, who designed the town’s Cantareira Building, along with many other “neo-Miesian” (after architect Mies van der Rohe) works scattered throughout the country. He also designed the modern subway station that sits alongside the Casa da Musica.

Wallpaper Magazine points out a few more examples, noting that “Porto has seen museums, concert halls, and an entire metro system join its churches and bookshops as architectural highlights in the past 25 years, and it’s keeping the momentum up.”

All the more reason to give Porto a second look, if you haven’t already.

The post Porto, Portugal: A Rising Star of Modern Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

In this region, sprawling properties are common. The structures built on them aren’t necessarily all clustered together, so they can take full advantage of their surrounding landscapes. The quiet rural municipality offers lush forests, grassy meadows, the perfect weather for swimming pools, and often even views of the Atlantic Ocean.

For this project, architecture firm Atelier 1111 wanted to maximize connection to these natural features, seamlessly integrating the architecture into the protected enclave of stone pines, olive trees, and cork trees.

The property features what Atelier calls a group of “four elements” — the main house, a garage, a swimming pool, and this smaller “Cottage House,” which is partially sheltered within the earth. All of these structures are located “in very distinct parts of the land” and take inspiration from their immediate surroundings. In the case of the Cottage House, the first structure to be built on the site, the architects looked to the texture of the cork trees as well as traditional earthen vernacular architecture of the area, like the rammed earth houses of Alentajo.

“Most of this project was a discovery,” they explain. “We did not start with a predefined form or image. We were always in between fusion and imposition. Outside, we sought to adapt the construction to its context, but at the same time, add something to it. Inside, we wanted to take advantage of the light variations, trees movements, and smell, feeling the landscape through the different seasons of the year.”

Intended as a place to sit and contemplate nature, the Cottage House is “implanted” into the hillside to help protect it from the elements and give it a unique perspective of the forest. Though it’s undoubtedly modern in form, it feels almost like an extension of the land. Comprised of an entrance porch, a living/kitchen area, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a storeroom, and an informal terrace, the house needs no air conditioning or heat thanks to its living roof.

“We have always tried to make spaces based on simplicity, keeping only their essence,” adds Atelier 1111. “They might express a certain roughness, but this is eventually compensated with other elements. In this project, we had a special interest in shadow and thickness in transition moments.”

“Sometimes, the interior walls and ceilings continue to the outside. When the windows are completely open, the interior space grows and the limit is redefined. Although there are texture variations, the materials, in and outside, are exactly the same. We chose solid materials, with a remarkable thickness and weight. The aging way of each material was fundamental to these choices. We really want to [create the feeling of] time passing through the construction, just like it passes through all of us.”

The post Earth-Sheltered Pink House in Portugal Looks Like a Modernist Sculpture first appeared on Dornob.

This private residence is situated on a steep slope. While the site’s original structure was removed to make way for the Gerês House, its stream and adjoining land, complete with incredible views of the greenery below, were taken full advantage of. The new home is a contemporary construction executed in overlapping planes of concrete — a choice made to allow the project to spontaneously respond to the area’s steep terrain over a number of different levels.

The construction is made up of two main elements: a large wooden volume and a concrete plinth, the former of which is practically suspended above the latter. The plinth itself is set into the slope, simultaneously allowing people to access the house from the upper level and freeing the lower planes up so that the view out over the surrounding landscape can be fully appreciated. The wooden volume is mostly open plan, and the fluid nature of its common areas means the residents can use it in a number of different ways. The kitchen and bedroom areas are located on the same level as the living space, but there are a few more enclosed and intimate spaces on the home’s mezzanine level to accommodate privacy needs.

The Gerês House was designed by Carvalho Araújo, while the furniture inside it was conceived of by Álvaro Siza, one of Portugal’s most esteemed architects. Everything was made specially for a family who wanted a serene weekend escape where they could indulge in their passions for art, architecture, and entertaining. The stream was expanded to create a pond in the lower garden level, which itself is surrounded by a nice mix of both natural and manmade elements. Steps trace an idiosyncratic route down to this area from up above, passing through uncovered portions of the concrete base that have been made to function as outdoor terraces. A water feature flows from the top of the site over a set of landscaped concrete trays and connects to the stream below, ensuring that water is abundantly present all throughout the site.

The home’s interlocking volumes of wood and concrete similarly flow into one another, with the board-marking on the concrete making it virtually indistinguishable from the planks being used for cladding. Mechanical glass doors reach 18 feet in height to separate the living area from an outer deck beyond. This glazing also marks the transition between the two volumes, allowing the residents to open up their home’s internal spaces to the outside world whenever they feel like it. There are also a number of exciting elements to be found within the house itself, including hot tubs with panoramic views out over the garden and exposed ceiling trusses.

The post Stunning Portuguese House Takes Advantage of Site, Stream, and Views first appeared on Dornob.

Located on an arid plain of farmland in Melroeira (close to the Portuguese capital Lisbon), this family home takes its cues from agricultural architecture like barns and stables, with an added injection of contemporary class that sets it apart from the utilitarian buildings it harkens back to.

A Geometric Marvel

The house has a simple shape and bears a resemblance to an extruded gable wall — at once perfectly symmetrical and impossibly minimal. The singular structure is long and capped by a deep pitched roof. Clad in black precast concrete panels to help it blend into the surrounding landscape (especially at night), the volume is extended at its front with a series of wooden polygonal frames. These take the same shape as the house but are spaced apart to allow more light into the area they enclose.

This same area serves as an outdoor patio for the home, affording its residents some beautiful views out from the sloping hill on which the construction sits. Luckily, a huge wall of glass separates the outside and inside spaces, so even from the interior, these expansive views can still be appreciated. From certain angles, this front part of the house has an almost spiritual quality to it, like those encountered in temples and churches.

A Dynamic Interior

Inside, common areas like the living room and kitchen have been arranged in the context of an open floor plan, which strengthens the connection between the house and the landscapes around it. The house is filled with design classics like Le Corbusier’s Chaise Lounge Chair and the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. Fitted furniture has been kept to a minimum, save for some wooden cabinets and a built-in fireplace — pieces that accentuate the home’s crisp white walls and vaulted ceiling.

The grounds of the house have been landscaped in a similar fashion, with a planted area that has minimal vegetation and a walkway whose organic forms bring you around from the entrance to the slope at the front. The house is entered through a rusted steel canopy on one side, and the rooms, study areas, and bathrooms are located on its upper level toward the rear.

An Interesting Concept

Finally, the concept for the home was based on the simplicity of a child’s conception of a house: five lines. More specifically, two for the walls, one for the floor, and two for the vaulted roof. Considering the design’s back-to-basics attitude, it seems like the architects have successfully managed to create a spatially interesting and complex residence, where pockets of the classic volume have been carved out to create internal patios that allow not only light to enter but also give the bedrooms an added layer of privacy.

It’s a minimal yet intimate property that will be a home to both adults and children and provide everyone with enough space to live independently and together all at once.

All photos by Joao Morgado

The post Filipe Saraiva Arquitectos Designs New Pentagon-Shaped Home in Portugal first appeared on Dornob.

In the early 20th century, when “Red House” was first built, the tiny village of Vendas de Azeitão must have looked very different than it does today. The region is known for its cheese, traditional ceramic tiles, wineries, and rolling green hills. Over a hundred years later, it has retained a lot of its charm and architectural vernacular, but of course, new constructions have sprung up all over, crowding in buildings like this one.

Its neighbors may now be homes, parking lots, and alleyways instead of lush fields full of grapevines, but Red House perseveres. Tasked with its renovation by the builders’ grandchildren, architecture firm Extrastudio aimed to make the winery “an oasis in the middle of the village,” preserving its small orchard of orange trees and cutting a wide window into the bottom floor. This new aperture connects the heart of the home to the garden without significantly disturbing the exterior.

The architects went out of their way to source a new type of lime mortar that was compatible with the building’s original exterior finish so they could repair it without altering it too much. They added a natural red pigment to the structure that complements the area’s traditional tiled roofs and pairs beautifully with the blue-gray of the sky, shifting hues from pink to crimson depending on the humidity.

No longer suitable for its original purpose, the building’s old timber roof was moved out into the garden and turned into a deck. Crumbled stone walls that couldn’t be salvaged became gravel. A large tank with a black interior offers a cool respite from the hot summer sun, and in the colder months, it acts as a tranquil reflecting pool, recalling the look of the massive stock tanks used for irrigation and livestock.

Inside, floor-to-ceiling mirrors cover many of the walls, visually doubling the space and helping transmit light to what was once a series of smaller, darker rooms. A porthole-style window, a scattering of skylights, and a new walled-in courtyard that runs along the side of the home bring in even more light, which is magnified by the glossy white surfaces inside. The first floor contains common areas, and half of it stretches straight up to the roof for a cathedral-like effect. The lofted second floor offers a wide expanse of open space for sleeping, working, and daydreaming.

This merging of past and present manages to honor history without sacrificing modern style and comfort, giving it a timeless feel that should help it survive well into the future.

The post Portugal Winery Transformed Into Private Residence first appeared on Dornob.

This unusual bus stop looks a bit like it has a parasitic growth protruding from its side. It is, in fact, an urban intervention by Portuguese firm Like Architects.

The project is called Bus Stop Symbiosis, and symbiosis is a better word than parasitic to describe the relationship between the existing structure and the added undulating one.

In a symbiotic relationship, it is possible for both organisms to benefit. The vaguely worm-like red wood fiber/resin addition benefits by entertaining passers-by and giving them a place to sit.

The bus stop benefits because the urban art installation provides them with an interesting object to study while they wait for the bus – most of them, no doubt, wondering what this weird curvy thing might be.

Installed as a temporary installation in an historic district of Largo dos Lóios, Oporto, Portugal, the unusual art object was only present for a short time in 2010.

Contrasting so starkly with its surroundings, the shape and color of the bright red sculpture was a statement about the historic world melding with the modern world.

A playful and interactive project, the Bus Stop Symbiosis drew attention to the existing structure while adding a fun but somewhat puzzling new element to the bus stop and the entire street.

More info via Archello:

“The public space of the site selected for the intervention – Largo dos Lóios – is designed by the flow of public transport, taking as central element a broad set of (three) banal bus stops. BusStopSymbiosis takes advantage of this centrality – worthy of an artistic intervention – and in a provocative approach encourages the public to think about the design of public space Standing next to an ordinary bus stop and creating a new inter-urban relationship, BusStopSymbiosis is an urban facility that aims not only to increase the space for seating in the existing bus stop, but as well to entertain those who are still waiting for their transport or just strolling up nearby. Unlike the existing seats, BusStopSymbiosis enables people to feel free to seat towards either side of the square, allowing them to voluntarily decide their position in the public space.”

The post Worm-Like Sculpture Attaches Itself to Portuguese Bus Stop first appeared on Dornob.

In Miramar, Portugal, architectural firm e|348 architects devised a home that interacts with its environment in a natural and novel way. The architects wanted to incorporate passive cooling into the home’s design, but they did not want this feature to be obvious or predictable. They settled on a unique facade which opens and closes on command to control the home’s interior climate.

The Screen House features moving wooden louvers around the exterior of the upper level. The louvers are constructed of vertical strips of wood which open to allow for natural light and solar heating, or close for privacy and to keep the interior from becoming too hot in the summer.

The opening and closing wooden screens also allow the residents to constantly redefine the living space. Room divisions and visual connections can be changed simply by folding the louvers open or pulling them closed. The living area continues on to the rooftop, where a clear barrier protects residents and revelers.

The environment of the semi-enclosed balcony of the upper level is changed considerably simply by the movement of the screens. Closed louvers provide supreme privacy while open louvers create an airy, natural light-filled outdoor space.

Inside the Miramar home, airy staircases, clear room dividers and plentiful windows make the lovely home feel almost weightless. On the ground floor, one of the corners features large sliding glass doors which completely open up the home. Nearly all of the home’s architectural features were meant to promote passive cooling and the free flow of air throughout the entire living space.

“Although the volume, apparently, is being treated as a solid monolith, it is fully traversed, with vertical and horizontal voids, with the purpose of creating strong visual relations with its contiguous exterior spaces, and allowing the light to enter through the entire house.”

“On the ground floor are the social and service areas, plus, in the northwest, there is a ‘body’ attached, to be used as a garage. The entire floor is opened, from north to south, allowing social spaces relate frankly to their outdoor spaces of natural expansion.”

The post Airy Home with Operable Wood Louvre Facade first appeared on Dornob.

A stark white house in the shape of a cross is perched on a stone hill near the small town of Melides in Portugal in a modernized version of castles overlooking the countryside. Inspired by feudal mansions that were positioned for optimal views of the lords’ estates, the house features four connected living volumes surrounding a central courtyard from which inhabitants can watch the sun sink down into the horizon each night.

A joint project between architects Ana Cravino and Inês Cordovil of SIA Arquitectura Studio and Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus (photographed by Fernando Guerra), the home stands out from the surrounding landscape just as dramatically as a medieval castle would have, but with a very different aesthetic of pure white rectilinear surfaces.

The two-story home features three bedrooms, a kitchen and living room on the top floor, with an additional living room and storage areas on the lower floor. The elevated courtyard leads out to a spacious terrace and infinity-edge swimming pool.

The interior of the home continues the modern, minimalist feel of the exterior, including a kitchen in which all appliances, cabinets and implements are hidden in a white wall for an entirely clutter-free appearance. A tranquil bath looks out onto the swimming pool, and a curving cut-out in one corner adds visual interest, inside and out.

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It is simple and unadorned, relying instead on its minimalism to impress. It is almost as if someone described a house – four walls and a pointed roof – and it was brought to life in this little town.

There are no conventional windows as you might find in almost any other home. Instead, the home has a gigantic, barn door-sized opening in the front.

A cutout in the ceiling of the main structure allows in natural light that is more than adequate to illuminate the home. Part of the home resides underground, featuring cutout windows in the ground to let light flood the subterranean chambers.

The home, at first glance, may look harshly minimal. But the warm glow that fills it in the daytime from the sun is reflected in the warm light that shines outward after dark, making it seem like a cozy, comfortable place to be.

More from the architects

“The functions are banal: a house divided in private area with bedrooms, and social area with living-rooms. The private areas are at street level under the plot, around a central courtyard with rooms opening to private patios in a intimate environment. The living rooms are around a void, that collects light from above and gazes the castle at the city centre.”

“The house is a recognizable archetype emptied of its centre by the light designed by a three heighted courtyard that opens horizontally at the garden level. The bedroom courtyards, revealed in the garden, relate with this archetypal object providing different readings on its scale. Scale and volume are controlled in a chaotic context, with a clear identity that from its core relates with the historical legacy far away: the Leiria Castle.”

The post Beauty of Simplicity: Four Walls, One Roof, Stunning Home first appeared on Dornob.