House in Macinhata da Seixa

The client wanted to a house that would fulfil an old dream: to be in the living-room and watch the sea.
The land was high but not enough to get a glimpse of the water down there in the West.
Thus, the house kept rising volume after volume until it reached the living-room, opened and looking at the sea.

Everything was inverted:
A granite platform simulates a Northern house, placed on a stone threshing floor, with only two storeys. The third storey is hidden under the slope to open itself over Oliveira city, the bedrooms and below them the pool.

The windows, many and large, are opened to every direction so that the house faces everywhere.
Upstairs the framework cuts out the westward landscape inside the living-room almost as a canvas painted only for this house, a dream once again drawn: “Ça c`est pour moi, le plus beau et le plus triste paysage du monde. C´est le même paysage de la page précédente, mais je lái dessiné une fois encore pour bien vous le montrer. C´est ici que le petit prince a apparu sur terre, puis disparu.”*

Text: Nuno Brandão Costa

Dr. Jorge de Jesus Ribeiro

Nuno Brandão Costa

Collaboration: André Eduardo Tavares, Joana Restivo, Inês Pimentel
Foundations and Structures: Ana Isabel Vale (AB Projectos)
Hydraulic equipment and installations: Ana Isabel Vale (AB Projectos)re
Electricity & Safety: Maria da Luz Santiago (RS associados)
Hvac: Raul Bessa (GET)