At the rear, a staircase running parallel to the party wall was all that remained from the original structure. Aside from it, only the stone walls and a timber frame — floor and roof — existed, both in relatively good condition. The staircase was fragile, yet its odd placement served as a cue. Because it was precarious, it was replaced. The other elements were kept and revalued through the new design. The existing timbers were painted, allowing for maintenance with subtle replacements and ensuring a continuous reading across the space. Very little was added. On the lower level, a few light partition walls outline the new rooms, each of similar size. Above, a compact infrastructural core conceals the home’s technical utilities. The existing roof truss now rests on a new, robust timber beam, enabling the opening of a high-set window overlooking the garden. A light wooden terrace ensures a seamless connection between spaces.

The execution drawings were minimal. The spatial arrangement was preserved, but the slow and close collaboration with the builders allowed for a series of improvised moments that would have never been foreseeable in the original design. Outside, one finds an exposed cork façade, three octagonal concrete columns poured using salvaged formwork, a concrete water tank, and a mirrored wall reflecting the beautiful garden designed with pomo landscapes. Like the project itself, the house is pragmatic and honest. A kind of primitive urban hut, conceived as a holiday home yet meant to be lived in all year round.

Text provided by the architects.

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.