Interactive floor plan: Lagar do Marmelo, Portugal

The article presents Campodels House, a concrete structure in the Bündner mountains near Chur, Switzerland, designed by artists and architects Pascale Wiedemann and Daniel Mettler. This building serves as a sober second home, emphasizing a pared-down interior to draw attention to the site's natural light and spaciousness. Its unique design allows for two families to reside there, with an interlocking staircase ensuring privacy and minimal awareness of each other's presence. The location, nestled in a popular mountain region close to renowned destinations like Davos, Lenzerheide, St. Moritz, and Zurich, offers abundant leisure opportunities, leading the architects to intentionally keep the physical structure simple. This approach aligns with the 'Swiss Box' school of residential design, characterized by minimalist aesthetics and functional efficiency. The house features a pure and unadorned concrete shell. Its doors and window openings are framed with wood, exhibiting minimal detailing. Floor-to-ceiling sliding glass walls provide access to recessed external balconies, blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor spaces. The interior color palette is largely restrained, with the exception of a polychromatic accent in the basement entry area and lacquered wardrobe doors in each apartment, adding subtle touches of vibrancy. Each of the two four-room apartments, one on the ground floor and the other on the first, is sparsely furnished. They incorporate minimally detailed Strato kitchens and expansive open spaces, creating a multi-aspect main living area that encourages a focus on the surrounding environment and the architectural details. The design maintains a long diagonal dimension by keeping the living space and kitchen open to the stairwell, promoting an open and connected feel within the apartments. Each apartment includes two bedrooms that branch off the main living area, offering a functional layout for its occupants. The deliberate simplicity in design, both in structure and interior finishes, aims to highlight the natural beauty of the location and the quality of light within the space. This architectural project exemplifies a modern residential approach that prioritizes integration with nature and a minimalist lifestyle, providing a serene retreat in a picturesque mountainous landscape. The choice of materials, particularly concrete and wood, contributes to the dwelling's robust yet refined aesthetic, harmonizing with its alpine surroundings. The overall intent is to create a living environment that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, serving as a testament to the effectiveness of restrained design in a natural setting. #ResidentialArchitecture #SwissDesign #ConcreteHouse #MinimalistInterior #AlpineLiving #PascaleWiedemann #DanielMettler #ChurSwitzerland #ArchitecturalFeatures

Architects Clara Reynaldo of CR2Arquitetura and Lourenco Gimenes of FGMF designed their own family home on a challenging 4x30m narrow plot in São Paulo. The primary challenge was to integrate the entire house program within the limited space while ensuring sufficient natural light and ventilation. Their solution involved extensive research, drawing inspiration from compact Japanese and Dutch home designs. The final design, which took three years to complete, strategically incorporates a central garden. This garden is cut into the constructed volume, creating three façades that are generously bathed in natural light. This approach was crucial for maximizing illumination and ventilation within the narrow confines of the plot. The house is structured into two main blocks, positioned on either side of this central courtyard. These blocks are interconnected by a corridor on the ground floor and a mesh footbridge on the first floor. The larger, front-facing block houses the primary living areas, including the kitchen, sitting room, and bedrooms on the upper level. The smaller, rear block supports the front structure and contains service areas, circulation paths, an office, and a TV room. An unconventional design decision was to place the kitchen facing the street, allowing the living room to be oriented towards the private central garden. This choice transformed a potential obstacle into a design opportunity, emphasizing the kitchen's form and integrating it spatially into the home. To further enhance the spatial integration and perception of openness, the architects innovatively sunk the kitchen by 75cm into the ground. This created an elevated corridor that runs alongside it and leads directly into the living room. The interior and exterior of the house maintain a monochromatic palette with clean, white, light-reflecting surfaces. This choice, combined with large openings facing the courtyard, contributes to the illusion of a more expansive space than its actual dimensions suggest. The project also prioritized the use of recyclable materials. The overall result is a bright and airy home that efficiently utilizes every part of the narrow plot. This design demonstrates how thoughtful architectural solutions can overcome significant site constraints to create a functional, aesthetically pleasing, and comfortable living environment, effectively making the small space feel larger and more connected to nature through strategic use of light and spatial relationships. #Architecture #ResidentialDesign #SmallSpaceLiving #SãoPaulo #UrbanHousing #SustainableDesign #ModernArchitecture #NarrowPlotHouse #ArchitecturalInnovation

The art of azulejo, glazed ceramic tilework, is deeply embedded in Portugal's cultural identity, with its origins tracing back to the 13th century following the Moorish invasion. Initially featuring Islamic motifs like knotwork, the art form gained widespread popularity in the 16th century when Portuguese leaders began commissioning these mosaics, leading to localized production. This shift marked the emergence of a "scenography" in azulejo, incorporating dynamic patterns of flowers, dolphins, and cherubs by the 17th century. The National Azulejo Museum in Lisbon, housed in a former convent, showcases this evolution through chronological exhibits, including a notable 75-foot panorama of Lisbon from before the 1755 earthquake, widely attributed to Spanish artist Gabriel del Barco. Azulejos are created through a meticulous process involving baking tiles, applying glaze colors (primarily blue, but also yellow and green) with potent ink diluted with water, and then refiring them at extremely high temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This glazing makes the tiles remarkably resilient against weather elements and enhances their true colors. Unlike tilework in other countries, Portuguese azulejos are integral to the architecture and context of their setting. The mosaics are not merely decorative; their designs and narratives are specifically created for the places they adorn, conveying deep meaning and historical context. Notable examples of azulejo work can be found throughout Portugal. Porto, for instance, serves as an open-air museum for these tiles, with the São Bento Railway Station featuring over 20,000 tiles depicting key moments in Portuguese history by Jorge Colaço. The Church of St. Ildefonso in Porto also boasts 11,000 blue-and-white tiles. Religious sites like the Chapel of the Souls in Porto use azulejos to bring biblical stories and figures to life, reinforcing their significance to worshippers. The Fronteira Palace near Lisbon is another stunning example, with its Battle Room containing intricate scenes from the 17th-century Portuguese Restoration War. The use of azulejos continued to evolve, adapting to new cultural concepts and societal needs. Following Lisbon's devastating earthquake, azulejos were used on building facades as an economical and efficient way to rebuild the city, transforming its landscape into a theatrical setting and providing a sense of hope. In the 20th century, contemporary artists like Maria Keil integrated azulejos into public spaces such as Lisbon's Metro stations, creating vibrant installations. Even today, artists like Diogo Machado (Add Fuel) and community art projects are reinventing the azulejo aesthetic, utilizing digital techniques and collaborative efforts. To experience this unique Portuguese art form, visitors can explore specific sites such as the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, which houses the largest collection of 18th-century azulejos depicting Jean de La Fontaine's fables; the National Palace of Sintra, adorned with heraldic and hunting scenes; and the Sé Velha (Old Cathedral in Coimbra), featuring 16th-century geometric motifs. The National Azulejo Museum offers a comprehensive historical overview and workshops. Additionally, artists like Caroline Vidal in Lisbon provide hands-on workshops, allowing participants to learn the techniques and appreciate the skill involved in painting these iconic tiles, thereby immersing themselves in a fundamental aspect of Portuguese culture. #PortugueseCulture #AzulejoTilework #CeramicArt #ArchitecturalDecor #CulturalHeritage #Lisbon #Porto #ArtHistory #PublicArt

The article showcases a unique residential project by Fala Atelier in Matosinhos, Portugal, which redefines suburban architecture with an unconventional design. The house, spanning 2,580 square feet, features an inverted roof where one side is curved and the other straight, creating a distinct silhouette that stands out from typical suburban homes. The structure is described as an 'exploded box' resting on a translucent plinth. The exterior of the house employs a striking black, white, and green color palette, a signature of Fala Atelier, but with new and surprising elements. Different vertical and slanted surfaces are meticulously chosen and set apart with varying colors. The facade is punctuated by a mix of round and square windows, which are arranged to compose three distinct elevations, some evoking faces or imaginary animals. Adding to the playful aesthetic, the house incorporates blue and green shutters that can conceal the openings, giving it the appearance of a paper collage with colored figures scattered across a white canvas. The color scheme is elaborate, featuring hues of green, blue, light green, black, white, and green again. Inside the residence, the structural elements are intentionally detached from the walls. A sequence of five slender, light green concrete columns is prominently featured in different rooms, designed to subtly obstruct daily routines, emphasizing their presence as sculptural elements rather than hidden supports. Notably, one of these columns extends to the outdoor terrace, seemingly supporting nothing, which further highlights the architect's unconventional approach to structure and form. The ground floor hosts an open living space that seamlessly connects to the garden and an office situated above it. The interior's complexity is enhanced by double-height spaces, occasional kinks in the walls, and the visible concrete columns, all beneath a gently sloped ceiling. The upper floor houses the primary bedroom within an extruded quarter-circle space, adding another unique geometric dimension to the layout. The house's construction is a deliberate assembly of various surfaces—straight, folded, cut, curved, and tilted—crafted from materials such as concrete, marble, and glass brick. These surfaces divide, overlap, intersect, and cover different areas, all anchored by the bold, punching-through columns. The interior space is designed to meander between these carefully choreographed elements, creating a dynamic and engaging experience. The architectural concept defines the house as a figure that is simultaneously complete and broken, reflecting a deliberate disruption of conventional architectural norms. #FalaAtelier #PortugalArchitecture #ModernDesign #InvertedRoof #UniqueHomes #ArchitecturalInnovation #ColorfulFacade #ConcreteColumns #SuburbanRevolution