Relinquishing the pursuit of a literal interpretation of the pre-existent model, the design of the shutters seeks to address the new demands of functionality and comfort, allowing for their full or partial opening and placing them against a sliding wooden slat that, providing better ventilation, helps to ensure subtle changes of light in the readability of the façade. In a system intended to be harmonic, the granite structure never appears dissociated from the filling of its spans. The thickness of the façade is drawn by those same louvered doors that, when open, reveal the interior space.

That area, directly linked to the new granite paved threshing floor space is, after all, the key player of the architectural experience, and without it, everything else would be meaningless.

Text provided by the architect.

Our proposal was to dismantle and reassemble the existing stone ruin, offsetting two walls for the required extra space. In the ecological spirit it presupposed, roof and slab structures ought to be built in wood and thermal insulation with cork panels. Like everything else, new wooden frames were to be custom designed.

The long time of architecture forced this project to survive a pandemic, an obstruction of the Suez Canal and several wars, which once again revealed the cyclical nature of capitalism’s crisis in a new inflationary spiral. Combined with the current shortage of skilled construction labour in Portugal, its original design became impossible. We were forced to redesign the house according to the technical and material limitations of a local contractor. As an outcome, design became a collective achievement. From our original proposal, form stayed but construction turned into the cheapest conceivable: concrete pillars and beams, ordinary concrete blocks, water-resistant MDF and little else, all merely coated with a thin layer of paint or varnish. Produced to remain hidden, all of these materials were here used “as found” and “as is”, in the spirit of Alison & Peter Smithson or Kazunari Sakamoto. New aluminum frames (including standard handles) were chosen from a catalogue, only to be subverted by a vivid color. All the original stones of the house were reused to build new retaining walls.

Thereby, drawings illustrating this publication reflect not our original design, but its new life: as-built and somewhat “designed” by others. This inverts meaning and allows one to learn from the compositional sense of an otherwise ordinary construction. Richness of space resulted from this economy, translated into a maximization of the minimal gesture. “Less is enough,” wrote Aureli. Truth be told, when facing macroscopic socio-political issues such as economy and ecology, contemporary architecture can do little more than contribute to the most generous definition of this minimum.

Text provided by the architect.