A Stand of Pines Directed the U-Shaped Plan of This Family Home in Portugal

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Project Details:

Location: Praia Grande, Sintra, Portugal

Architect: Atelier Data / @atelierdata

Footprint: 4,606 square feet

Landscape Design: Polen Land Design / @polen.land.design

Engineer: Green Heritage

Photographer: Richard John Seymour / @richardjohnseymour

From the Architect: "Integrated in the national park of Sintra-Cascais, the house is located near the Praia Grande beach in Rodízio, Colares. The project aims to utilize the void created between the pine trees, creating a fusion/alliance between the built element and the natural space.

"The starting point—the existing pine trees—generated a volumetric composition of different volumes, where each of these volumes corresponds to different types of usage. Its disposition on the ground takes into account the sun orientation, the topography, the position of the trees, and a system of visual relations with the Serra de Sintra located to the east.

"The volumes are strategically organized around a central empty clearing which which is marked by a swimming pool, creating a controlled space dominated by nature that invites the family to inhabit the outside where the inclined roofs of the different volumes converge.

"The need to release/lift the volumes from the ground due to the porous and permeable terrain contributed to the organic nature of the built composition.  The home’s suspended elements are reinforced by the vegetation that develops under them. From a landscaping point of view, the challenge was maintaining the existing pine forest, aiming to enhance it as a cohesive element that acts as a usable garden and scenery for the interior of the house.

"The house incorporated materials that ensured a raw and, somehow, rough appearance, in line with the project’s organicity without failing, however, to distinguish itself as a mass built in dialogue with the surroundings."